- * Another SCV Pedestrian fatality: a 15 year old boy on Soledad Canyon Road was hit and killed Sunday morning by a car that struck the curb and overturned near Soledad and Gailxy Way, hitting the boy who was on the sidewalk. Police say the car was heading west (which must mean the victim was on the sidewalk on the north side of Soledad, not on the bike path on the south side) and alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the collision. SCV SHERIFF KHTS
- City sets speed limits of 50 and 55 mph for Newhall Ranch Road and Golden Valley Road, the last legs of the Cross Valley Connector. Signal report not online yet.
- Deputies arrested 10 people at a Newhall drug house for possession of heroin and unspecified prescription pills. This is the third time in three months that the house, on Fourl Road in Newhall, has been busted by Deputies SIGNAL
- New Newhall Land Entrada development on land south of Magic Mountain would have 1,232 multi-family housing units, 408 single family homes, and 726,000 sq. ft. of commercial space. The project would serve as an eastern entrance to Newhall Ranch, the 21,000 home project Newhall Land plans for the area west of Magic Mountain SIGNAL
- The City of Santa Clarita will develop a process and “tax district” policy for future neighborhoods that would like to install speed bumps on their roads. This follows the Benz Road epic that has been a thorn in the City’s side since 2003, when the road became a short cut for people to get from Copper Hill to Bouquet Canyon SIGNAL
- The Hart District has kissed its dice, rolled them, and gone all in on the Romero Canyon site for Castaic High School. Tammy Marashlian has a great report on what’s been accomplished and what remains to be done in the continuing saga of Castaic High 91384 SIGNAL An LTE, however, says the selection of the Romero property was “about real estate and politics, not education.” What land deal in the SCV isn’t about real estate and politics?
- President Obama finds unlikely allies in immigration reform push: Evangelicals! The NY Times says that many evangelicals support comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship. Others do not. Both cite scripture in support of their case (in an odd twist, the anti-reform advocates cite Romans, the pro-reform advocates cite Leviticus) NY TIMES
- Popular AQMD program comes to town offering incentives for residents to exchange gasoline lawn mowers for electric ones. ““I just don’t want to pollute the environment anymore,” he said. “And, I didn’t like taking in so many fumes,” one guy who participated in the program said SIGNAL
- A taxi hit LA Mayor Villaraigosa while he was bicycling in marked bike lane on Saturday. The Mayor suffered a broken elbow and required surgery. The LA Times says the incident may increase talk about bicycle safety in LA, and the LAPD is now (only now!!!) reminding officers that motorists “can be held responsible for causing a bicycle accident even if he or she did not make direct contact with the rider.” LA TIMES, STREETSBLOG LA
- Speaking of bad drivers, watch out for a-holes in Escalades who treat Highway 14 like their own bumper boat amusement park SIGNAL
- Just so it’s clear, the following are satire: Councilman Bob Kellar introduces resolution in support of Mel Gibson. SCV UNINCORPORATED. Also, Bob Hauter accidentally stumbled onto an anti-Buck McKeon rally recently
- Dave Bossert, fresh of his yearly Maine sabbatical, says the Hart District ought to sever its ties with the once-controversial and always murky SCV Facilities Foundation, the non-profit land-acquisition arm the District once depended on to find and purchase new school sites WRB
- And The Signal, for once, seems to agree with Bossert about the Facilities Foundation in its editorial praising the selection of the Romero site for Castaic high SIGNAL
- Joe Messina’s “Real Side” radio show will be about traditional family values. “Divorces are still on the rise. Single parent families are occurring at an alarming rate. Children from single parent homes often have MANY more issues adjusting and getting along than those coming from a “Traditional Family Unit”. Now we are going to introduce gay and lesbian marriages into the mix? Are we in for even more trouble; maybe?” he asks. If you think that gay families won’t get a fair shake on this program, be sure to call in and have your voice heard WRB, THE REAL SIDE
- Tim Myers’ column this week is a must-read profile of the 18 year old Saugus High student who has started a pro-immigration reform group in the SCV SIGNAL
- Conservative Signal columnist Steve Lunetta basically admits he’s a troll and writes his columns in order to offend people. And he accomplishes that this week by blaming environmentalists for the BP oil spill. SIGNAL I think Steve Lunetta needs to take my alternative transportation challenge
- Proxart guys challenge SCV artists to stage improv-everywhere style events “in the middle of the mall, in the middle of a parking lot, in an elevator (why don’t we do it in the road?). We need to take good art and bring it to where people already are.” PROXART . I totally agree. More Zombie Marches!
- Speaking of the arts, interesting Signal column the local theater that is a City Council meeting
- You know you want to check out Big Picture’s photos of the Tour de France, don’t you?
Thank you for continuing to read SCVTalk! After taking last week off, I feel rested and recharged.
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I think the City is off base on requiring tax assessment districts for neighborhoods needing speed control measures. While this need sometimes comes from within the neighborhood (Old Orchard 1 which the City funded) most are due to the addition of new tracts and cut through from new development (Benz Road, Linda Vista (Sunset Heights), Live Oak Springs, etc). It’s not like the residents of these communities asked for all this traffic and speeding nor do they particularly like the control measures that become necessary – they are pretty much forced into it to.
I think the assessments ought to be coming in the form of traffic mitigation fees from the developers who are creating the cut through issues. For example, the residents for Robinson Ranch have controllers for the gate at the bottom of the tract (the most direct route), but the contractors have to cut through and use Live Oak Springs to gain access because there is no gate at the top of the tract – much like the Happy Valley situation. Thankfully, a Sheriffs deputy has been busy writing tickets by the boatload on the street but as everyone knows, you can’t count on enforcement to solve the problem.
Pretty amazing the Signal can’t cover a fatal traffic accident that occurred at 10 AM on Sunday but has an article about lawnmowers. GO KHTS!
I’d like to thank Joe Messina for once again abusing his old SCV Chamber email list to SPAM me with his radio show advert, despite the fact that I’ve unsubscribed er…SEVERAL times from his list. First the Tea Party emails now this?
I wish your show well, Joe. But STOP THE SPAM! You’re in the freakin’ Internet business and should know better!!!
Off soap box…
It wasn’t even just the chamber list, he spammed us based on pulled and extracted emails from websites. What a disgrace.
Welcome back, Jeff. Terrific update, as always!
Jeff – I normally don’t turn into the grammar/spelling police because everyone makes mistakes but this time I can’t help myself. The accident on Soledad Canyon was at GAILXY not Galixy. I only bring this up because I have been totally confused for many years as to why this spelling is what it is. And given the strange spelling it is quite possible that the driver was distracted by it and the City will be up for another lawsuit.
Roger that thanks navigator. Changed. Since my head injury I find myself making many stupid grammar mistakes. No kidding.
Don’t worry, most issues with language following a traumatic injury go away within a year. My sister said it wasn’t until a few months after her concussion that she felt back at her best.
http://psy.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/46/3/195
(And anyway, misspelling a stupid street name is nothing compared to the atrocities that D. Bossert commits against his mother tongue on that other SCV site.)
Here is plantiffs evidence item #1-an puff piece by Jim Walker in The Signal . Coincidence?
http://www.facebook.com/n/?pages%2FSCVTalk%2F106854302679858&mid=2ae914aG5fff6203G18f6ebeG4c&n_m=petz2%40aol.com
Welcome back Jeff.
Pingback: Tweets that mention did you see you were quoted at SCV Talk? -- Topsy.com
In the Signal article on the lawnmower exchange the SCAQMD spokesperson states that the 200 lawnmowers taken out of use is the equivalent to removing 2000 automobiles. What a crock. Does anybody really believe this?
My early career included being a lawnmower repairman. I know lawnmowers. Let’s use a little logic. I recently purchased a new gasoline powered mower with a larger than average engine (190 cc). Automobile engines start around 2000 cc. The “common wisdom” states that a lawnmower puts out the pollutants of 10 cars. Ten cars would have minimally 20,000 cc engine capacity. So the argument is that the 190 cc engine, used approximately 30 minutes per week, puts out the equivalent pollutants of 10 cars at 20,000 cc being used throughout the week. This argument is crap even when you consider the pollutant mitigation devices on the automobiles.
This is the type of argument the environmentalist left and government agencies put out to sell their point and justify their existence. Jim Holt at the Signal was a typical journalist in putting the argument in the article without a challenge.
This giveaway was nothing more than a redistribution of wealth to subsidize 200 people so they could feel “green” while actually accomplishing nothing.
On top of it all battery powered lawnmowers are much weaker than gasoline ones. In spite of improvements in battery technology they just won’t last as long as a gasoline powered mower. I’ll bet most of these will be dead in two or three years needing a replacement battery to the tune of $150. How will the environment do with the disposal of the bad batteries. Every energy option has it’s costs.
Jim, cars are built with a lot of things that drastically reduce pollutants that lawnmowers usually don’t have (especially older ones), like catalytic converters.
True, and I addressed this in my reply. It just defies common sense that one lawnmower run at 30 minutes per week puts out the equivalent of 10 cars taking people to work and errands through the week.
Puts out what, is the question, cars reduce some things marginally, others a great deal. Either way, looks like you’re right, they are way off. I read that the basic comparison is one hour of mowing equals 100 miles of driving.
The majority of gasoline mowers have four stroke engines, just like an automobile. Two stroke engines are commonly used in chain saws as they provide faster torque. Gasoline mowers benefit from more torque than a battery mower but they don’t need the quick torque that a chainsaw does.
Indeed most lawns are small in the SCV. All the more reason that a gasoline mower in the hands of the rare homeowner who still mows his own lawn is a very minimal factor in our overall air pollution.
As I was driving to pick up my son from work a minute ago I also thought about motorcycles. I believe most don’t have catalytic converters like cars. How much do they contribute to the overall pollution? How about when I smoke a Boston Butt for 5 hours?
We all love clean air. I relate to the SFV in the 60′s when the air was so bad it would give me a sore throat. The air is better now than then. I’ll give the SCAQMD some justification for existing based on this. I just can’t stand the lie of demonizing the lawnmower as such a big part of the problem.
Back in the days when I owned instead of renting, I used a plug-in electric lawnmower and found it to be plenty powerful. It was also much lighter than either a gas-powered or battery-powered mower. It wasn’t particularly convenient to have an extension cord behind me, but after that one time you run over the cord with the mower and chop it in half, you learn how to dress the cable neatly as you mow
So does that mean someone has to run over the mayor of Santa Clarita to get some bike lanes on the Old Road?
Any volunteers?
Too bad The Old Road is not part of the city..unless you are talking about near Towsley.
Newhall Land Entrada development – This probably explains why the when intersection of The Old Road and Magic Mtn Pkwy was completed, it was all torn up and re-worked to the cost of however millions of dollars.
Need for Involved Citizenry I couldn’t agree with you more. Thank you for your support. I am so sick and tired of listening to the city say “we inherited these problems from the county”. Enough is enough.
On another note some facts about this particular neighborhoods traffic problem.
Please do keep in mind Sunset Heights was developed when we were already a city. It is that development that has destroyed an existing neighborhood. It is CANVAS STREET and the residents on CANVAS STREET that has taken the hit with the traffic NOT the Sunset Heights residents. It is the residents of Sunset Heights that drive up and down Canvas all day and night, it is their delivery trucks, their gardeners and their house keepers. It is their friends and families that use Canvas and not Sierra Hwy. That development and the opening of Linda Vista has created cut thru traffic and has changed the driving patterns with in this neighborhood. The traffic engineers can say what ever they want with all their traffic studies…they DON’T live here. They don’t see it hear it and live it every day 24 hours a day.
I understand that many around here want the second exit in case of an emergency, well I personally have lived in this neighborhood for 15 years and we did just fine without it. I recall with the Buckweed fire and then the fire that started on the corner of Sand Canyon, thank god there was no mandatory evacuation because as we were preparing to evacuate we COULDN’T even get out of our driveways let alone drive down the street because of all the looky loos. (it’s a great view on the top of Canvas).
What I also find so amazing is when the Corradine homes were being developed they intentionally built one house less than planned just so they did NOT have to provide a second exit. Go for a drive take a look an empty lot that sits on Linda Vista near Canvas. Do you think that issue is brought up?
Now regarding the driving patterns that clearly changed within the neighborhood, the city could care less just as the people that now use Canvas and don’t want anything done to mitigate the traffic. Once again they don’t see a problem of course not why would they, their streets haven’t been impacted they don’t have the 3000 cars a day. I ask put yourself in our shoes by that I mean the us the impacted residents on CANVAS.
Let me also remind everyone Sunset Heights was built with no EIR. How can you declare a negative Declaration? Come on how could there possibly be no impacts? Another thing to keep in mind… the natural ridgelines that were moved.
So I ask who is benefiting here? We know dam well the city wants this road left open, it is relieving traffic from Soledad and it is going to make even a greater shortcut once that housing development is finished that will connect Sierra Hwy to Plum Canyon. Oh yes and lets not forget the 10,000 students that will eventually be attending the COC campus on Sierra Hwy. Oh yes we see plenty of them already with their parking passes on their mirrors driving up and down, up and down.
Hey Benz Rd residents pretty soon we will be able to zip over to each others streets in no time and without using a single main road.
Canvas has no where near 3,ooo cars per day. Its not even close to Benz levels.
Dont go for overdramatics please.
I use Canvas from time to time to visit friends in Sunset Heights and am considerate with the speed limit. But most folks aren’t, including residents and service folk accessing side streets off Canvas and Linda Vista. I’m sure Linda Vista is also impacted by some Canvas traffic if Canvas neighborhood folk want to go west on Soledad. Seems the traffic and speeding cuts both ways. COC traffic is indeed a problem!
Ask for a speed survey if they don’t have one already. If the City has one, get a copy. It will show traffic counts by hour and speeds. Document all accidents. Use the speed survey and accident history if there are some to push for more enforcement. Make sure LASD is called and takes a report on all accidents.
I heard at the Council meeting a Benz resident was complaining about the noise and vibration from the speed cushions. After seeing a photo of them, I can see why. They are designed to be either a cheap fix or temporary. They City should be putting in permanent speed humps that would eliminate this issue.
While it may appear that the traffic engineers on the City staff do not want to deal with this issue, the real problem is some folks on the Council (particularly Ferry and McLean) are entrenched opponents of speed control measures. After the Old Orchard 1 speed bump success, City staff had money budgeted to put speed control measures in other problem neighborhoods but the Council, using a Fire Department Chiefs opposition for their rationale to vote against neighborhood friendly speed control measures quashed that idea! While the Fire Department doesn’t like them, they do deal with them in other local’s all the time!
Bike lanes on the county section of the Old Road are planned for FY 12-13. Sad to see the area near Magic Mountain developed. Some good (not 100% kosher) mountain bike trails back there.
If the AQMD was smart they would offer push mowers and eliminate the pollution that the power plants create.
I actually used a push mower with a catcher for a short while when I moved to the SCV in 1982. It’s a lot of work and just can’t compete with the vacuum action of a good rotary power mower in removing the clippings from the lawn. Give me my power mower and don’t guilt me about it SCAQMD!