SCVTalk’s Top 11 SCV News Stories in 2010

Good gosh it’s December 28 and though I’ve been thinking & sorting through stories for this post for eight weeks now, I’m only now typing them out.  What’s my criteria you ask? Well, I could say that I’m basing the top 11 list on page views, or hits, or number of comments or such, but, really, who are we kidding? I’m the boss here and these are my top 11 SCV news stories as told/explored/commented upon by SCVTalk’s readers and authors in 2010. So don’t expect too much and apologies in advance if your favorite story got left out of the mix.

But I’ll try to be fair. So here goes 2010, a year of indignation, outrage, sadness and hilarity in the SCV:

11. Hart District Eliminates Eighth grade promotion ceremonies: In an effort to trim the budget, the William S. Hart District did away with 8th grade promotion ceremonies this spring. If you’re yawning, I don’t blame you. Who on this blog thought that would be one of the top stories of 2010? But it was. Hundreds of commenters vented their frustration on SCVTalk (both for and against) and parents were extremely upset about the slight to their precious children. When I was an 8th grader, I got a throw-away certificate and a kick on the butt with an exhortation to do better in high school, or else. But in 2010, we talked and organized on Facebook for weeks about the fragile 8th Grade population of SCVers and their even more fragile parents. In the end, the District stood by their decision (admirably, I’m of the belief people should feel the pain if they expect the same services in a downturn but refuse to pay for them) and 8th Grade promotion ceremonies were canceled. Some parents held their own ceremonies, but by that point, no one cared.

10. The Strange Case of the Summit Seals: Another “How dare you!?!” story that made big waves (ha!) this year in SCVLand was the efforts of a few persnickety homeowners to ban children’s swim teams in Valencia’s exclusive Summit neighborhood. If  the thought of the 7 year old to 12 year old set competing in little swim meets on Saturday mornings in the summer -even if it is in your backyard- pleases you, you’re like me. But more than a few Summit homeowners hated the meets and the noise they generated. One pair of creepy homeowners even staked out a children’s swim meet, pointing a camera at parents (and by necessity their children) while sitting in a car out in the parking lot, stalker-style. Needless to say that didn’t go over to well on SCVTalk, the Signal, and a million other places. In the end, the children swam free, the crusty homeowners were sent back to their suburban fortresses bitter & defeated and I wondered if this were a watershed (ha!) moment in Valencia’s aging.

9. Mulder & Scully and the SCV Files : This was actually my favorite story of 2010. Back on May 4, at approximately 20:50-21:00 hours PST, something loud and fierce tore through the skies above our placid, sleepy valley, and it startled hundreds of us. SCVers took to Twitter and Facebook and a dozen other places to ask, “Did you hear that?” Immediately most folks assumed it was a jet fighter or two or three, but the speculation went even further than that. What some saw as joyriding American fighter pilots bursting through the skies in full afterburner, others saw as UFOs, or perhaps flying illegal aliens. The Signal and KHTS’ interest was eventually piqued, and we actually saw in 2010 those two news outlets do some real investigative journalism. At first Edwards Air base denied the planes were there’s, but the internet came through: a flight tracking website showed a pair of F-16s fly above the SCV at only 9,000 feet. Edwards had to admit the planes were their’s, and our brief run-in with military hardware in the SCV was at an end.

8. Black Tar Heroin : The new Drug of Choice for Wayward SCV Youths: The headline followed a few weeks of reporting about the new narco-threat in suburbs around the US: “Heroin big in Santa Clarita Valley,” blurted out NBC 4 in a news story. The story, based off the complaints of one mother whose heroin-addicted son had died in the SCV earlier this year, lead to a lot of discussion on SCVTalk. Some denied there was a problem. Others said it was real. Whatever the case, the mother who talked to the City Council about heroin addiction made an impact. By the end of the meeting she had Bob Kellar dressing down the new Sheriff’s Captain on the station’s reaction to anonymous drug tips, and by the end of the year, Captain Paul Becker had started up a new juvenile drug program and released stats about the number of arrests and heroin baggies recovered in Santa Clarita.

7. The Mysterious David Galvan: Meet David Galvan, an early 20s something SCV man who likes to play dress up, pull unwitting suspects over, and impersonate law enforcement personnel. At least he did until he was arrested by a real cop for doing just that. Oh, did I mention he ran for City Council? And his name closely resembles that of David Gauny, the runner up in April’s race? Swirling was the speculation over this turn of events as Gauny only lost to Ferry by 32 votes. Was it just a coincidence or was Galvan a stocking-horse meant to confuse voters and deny Gauny his seat? Who dresses up as a cop and pulls people over? WTF? If true that Galvan was a rogue Council candidate meant to deny the no-growthers their champion, does it get more small-town petty than that?

6. And then there’s Johnny Pride: The buff, 20-something reality tv actor/stuntman/Conan the barbarian wannabe would have made a cool protest vote in the City Council election in spring 2010 if he hadn’t been arrested for sexual assault just hours after a candidate’s debate back in March. But the overzealous Sheriff’s

A nice specimen

station had to backtrack almost immediately. Just a few days later the DA was saying there wasn’t enough to charge Pride with the crime. The case floundered after that, Pride headed off to Europe, and by the fall, the DA said they weren’t going to press charges against Pride at all. Pride rightfully sued the Signal in small claims court, but lost. I feel he was railroaded, his reputation was besmirched, yet I don’t know why. He wasn’t a threat to anyone in the Council race. Justice denied for the girls or for Pride? The Sheriff’s station stands by their arrest, but they don’t have much to show for it, do they?

5. 4th of July fireworks show turns deadly in Valencia: Perhaps the saddest story of 2010 involved the death of 38 year old Matilda Garnica of Newhall. The mom of three was sitting along Valencia Blvd, enjoying the finale to Westfield’s fireworks show with her kids when, out of nowhere, a 20-something woman ran a red light on Valencia, collided with a car, and slammed into Garnica and two of her children. Garnica’s life came to an abrupt end on the curb in front of Island’s Burgers, and two of her children were rushed to the hospital (both survived). The driver, shrouded in mystery for weeks, was finally named by KHTS in August, but not before her friends took to posting on SCVTalk that we should cut her some slack, that we should, “be good citizens and keep to ourselves.” The driver has, to the best of my knowledge, never faced charges for what she did. She wasn’t texting or drinking or chatting on the phone according to a police report, she was just careless and ran a red light and a mother of three was killed as a result. The city faced weeks of criticism for keeping all lanes open on a 45mph highway while spectators sat so close by. No announcements have been made about next year’s 4th of July show yet.

4. City Council Election : Status Quo The 17 percent of us who actually care to vote went to the polls in April and reelected Weste, Ferry, and McLean. Ferry, whose heart didn’t seem to be in the race this year, actually came close to losing to Mayo expansion critic David Gauny. Gauny ran a smart, if Machiavellian campaign but ultimately lost by 32 votes to Ferry (who had promised to crush him during a Council meeting earlier in the campaign). TimBen Boydston also ran, but finished a distant 5th, despite having “Former City of Santa Clarita Councilman” next to his name. SCVTalker Mike D. took to Google to map out the SCV vote by precinct and readers were furious that Gauny had lost, but he seemed to take it in stride.

3. Bob Kellar’s Proud Moment: Things kicked off rapidly nearly 1 year ago when Bob Kellar, speaking before a Minuteman rally in front of the Civic Center, worked himself up on the topic of illegal immigration. By the end of his speech before the 20 or so rally-goers, he was proclaiming himself to be a “proud racist” (yes yes, he had a bunch of “ifs” and other qualifiers, I know). SCVTalk spotted the regretful remark from our longtime and popular Councilman while reviewing YouTube videos of the event. A firestorm almost immediately ensued. Meg Whitman kicked him from her campaign for Governor, the LTEs flowed freely (even if many were in support of his comments), and no less a figure than the pater familias of SCV politics -Buck McKeon- said Kellar ought to apologize. The Councilman/realtor/former LAPD cop refused, however, and the controversy spilled into the City Council election as Gauny and the City Council sought to show themselves to be tough on the SCV’s second-class citizens. A rare moment of humanity emerged from the debate, however: Frank Ferry’s impassioned and faith-informed defense of the poor made me actually link to a Catholic theologian in defense of Ferry. And I never link to Catholic theologians.

2. Sgt. Ian Gelig & Pfc. Jake Suter – Rest in Peace: Even now I’m getting teary-eyed thinking of these two young men who died while serving their country in Afghanistan this year. Sgt. Gelig, an 82nd Airborne paratrooper, Hart Grad, and combat veteran of the Iraq War, was in a convoy in Helmand Province Afghanistan when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device.

Image courtesy of Petz. Thanks Petz.

The story evolved from there, with a BigJournalism.com piece shedding more light on the circumstances of the 24 year old Stevenson Ranch resident’s death, but it didn’t matter. The entire community was saddened by his death, and at least 10,000 of us lined his funeral route as hundreds of cars, a motorcycle honor guard, and his hearse drove from north Valencia through Stevenson Ranch and down into LA, where Sgt. Gelig rests now. Just a few weeks later, Pfc. Jake Suter, 19, a fresh West Ranch High grad, and on the ground for only five days in Afghanistan, died while on base. Cue another sad and mournful funeral route attended by thousands as Suter was taken to his resting place. Suter and Gelig join at least seven other SCV soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq as we close out the first decade of our (to this point) very shitty 21st century. Their deaths occurred just as I started to doubt our mission there, even as my congressman, Buck McKeon, said he agreed with the strategy of the President I voted for. It’s a crazy world when kids from the SCV die fighting hut-dwelling illiterate religious fanatics in a land 12,000 miles away. Rest in peace guys. We won’t forget any of you.

1. The City Council & (some of the) City Staff just don’t give a damn what we think: 2010 is the year the City learned that they could ignore public sentiment and suffer few, if any, repercussions. Knowing that few people vote or give a damn in this valley, the bullheaded Council and Staff charged forward in 2010 with an activist, pro-incumbent and anti-democratic agenda. They rushed to get a whole bunch of stuff done before the election (like the CVC), and shortly after the election they raised the campaign contribution limit to $1,000, ignoring scores of people who protested at a Council meeting in June and making it really difficult for any challengers in the future to raise as much money as the incumbents. I called them “anti-democratic” at that point as Myers coined the phrase “Ender Math, ” which is the the idea that a Councilperson can vote against popular, vocal resistance based on the silent majority who doesn’t show up and doesn’t bother to air their opinion (Laurie Ender once said that she represents the people who don’t show up at Council meetings).

By late June, the writing was on the wall. Ender scheduled a library takeover vote, the City was already in talks with LSSI, and despite hundreds of protesters at the August 24th meeting, the Council, with the support of the staff, voted to takeover our libraries, fire a bunch of good, hard-working local people, and outsource the operation to a mysterious for-profit private company in Maryland with foreign ownership and a real asshole as CEO. Since then we’ve taken the only recourse we can -the courts- but we’ve lost there even as the Staff and Council stumble over their mistaken assumptions, their over-optimistic projections and their inability to plan.

Notably, Bob Kellar dissented and redeemed himself in my eyes for opposing the rapid takeover plan and asking for more time.

Honorable Mentions for 2010:

Awesometown: Credit to the re-invented and re-located Newhall Land for creating the noxious but popular Awesometown campaign that, even as it was being criticized, got people to talk about Valencia. We all heart Valencia

David Henriquez: If you thought Galvan and Pride made for colorful copy this year, you need to browse the archives. Council candidate Henriquez’ claims that he was a secret agent man with the Navy in the 1980s made for a lot of guffaws on SCVTalk as the Signal and KHTS checked up on his CV.

The Mineral Chloride: Who’d a thunk a lowly mineral could make a top 11 list? Well, it didn’t, actually, because I couldn’t bring myself to summarize the conflict between us and our VeCo neighbors downstream over the excess chloride we put in the Mighty Santa Clara river. But the Signal thought it was one of the top stories of the year, and in truth, it probably was.

Newhall Redevelopment: If I wasn’t so pissed at the City over the library, this would have made the top 11. This was the year Newhall Redevelopment went from concept to reality. Congrats to the Committee members, the City staff, and yes, begrudgingly, yesterday’s and today’s City Council for an accomplished vision. Even better things are ahead for Newhall in 2011 and 2012.

Tea Party SCV: They really grew up this year and may become a real force in 2011 and 2012, but will redistricting dash their hopes?

Food Trucks: Who knew a hip LA culinary tradition would find traction in the SCV? Also, thank you to Chick-Fil-A for opening in Valencia.

West Creek Academy: A new type of public school opened in school-loving SCV this year as charter schools, private Hebraic speaking English speaking academies and other private schools gained momentum and public schools slashed their budgets: West Creek Academy promised to educate children in arts and music, and parents reacted, big time. The related influx of Korean families to the SCV will be one of the big stories of 2011.

SCVTalk Original Joints:

NickelDime, Mike D., Tim Myers and I are proud of the original, exclusive works we posted on the site this year. Here’s a few:

Free yourself of the tyranny of the cable company: NickelDime shows you how to do what our grandfathers did: get free television signals from the air right here in the SCV, only this time it’s in color and HD. An excellent post, the second most popular on the site in all of 2010.

Newhall Ranch Explored: Back in June NickelDime and I joined Newhall Land developers on a quick photo-safari of the Potrero Valley and, the valley immediately west of Magic Mountain where Newhall Ranch will be built in the coming years/decades. It looked a lot like Santa Clarita used to look, with cattle, ag industrial equipment, and lots of open space. POST 1, POST 2

Time for some honesty: I admit I was stoned out of my mind on prescription Vicodin when I wrote this take on Rip Van Winkle following my terrible bicycle accident in June.

Demolishing once and for all complaints about SCV traffic: Traffic is perpetually among the top two or three things SCVers complain about, but as I learned in May, we have it pretty damn good here in town.

Frank Ferry Interview: I scored an exclusive interview with Frank Ferry following his controversial “developmental terrorists” remark at a Council meeting. We wish him the best as he continues to recovery from his December surgery and complications.

NickelDime’s Epic Live Web cast of the opening of the Cross Valley Connector: Never before in the history of SCV media has someone been able to broadcast live while mobile from a cheap netbook computer and a patent-pending helmet cam. But Nickel Dime did in March as the CVC opened.

Humor: We attempted some humorous posts here, here, here, and here.

So long Conner: Still missing the little guy. Rest in peace boyo.

Happy New Year SCV! See you in 2011.