We’re starting a project and we’d like your help.
Soon, we are going to be living Santa Clarita’s 25th year as a city. We have decided to mark this occasion with a countdown of the 25 Most Important Milestones from 1987-2012.
Every two weeks, we’ll be releasing a short feature on an event, milestone, or moment that has shaped Santa Clarita. We will proceed in a countdown fashion, moving toward the biggest events in Santa Clarita’s history as a city. By “big” and “important”, we’re talking about things that changed our day-to-day lives, unprecedented achievements, ends of eras, flashpoints—you get the idea.
By December 15, 2012–the anniversary of Santa Clarita’s 25th year of cityhood–we hope to have assembled a concise retrospective that not only recounts important moments from the recent past, but that is also enriched by the memories and opinions of everyone who comments at SCVTalk.
As a first step, we’re brainstorming a list of potential events and milestones to include. We’ll eventually be culling this list down to 25. If you like, add any big items that we missed, and also weigh in on the order you’d rank these events (your top 10 list, etc.). Thanks!
1987
- Cityhood: Incorporation of the City of Santa Clarita
1988
- Newhalls Leave Signal: After 25 years, Scott and Ruth Newhall with son Tony Newhall leave local paper, Morris Media takes reigns
- Western Flank: First homes built in Stevenson Ranch
- COC Leadership: Dianne Van Hook hired at COC
1989
- Safe: Mitchell Adobe, oldest structure at Heritage Junction (built in 1865), dedicated
1991
- Shop On: Ground broken for the mall
- Yellow Ribbons: 180 Claritans serve in Gulf War
1992
- No to Slow: Measure A, the slow-growth initiative, fails
1993
- Buck Makes it Big: Buck McKeon, Santa Clarita’s first mayor, takes seat in US House of Representatives
1994
- Quake: Northridge earthquake causes $400M+ in damage to Santa Clarita, changes life in an instant
- PoFest: First annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, nod to Clarita’s love of the West
1996
- Wicks: Beloved artist and political cartoonist Randy Wicks dies
- Elsmere Landfill: Congressman McKeon and Senator Boxer sponsor successful bill to prevent landfill in Angeles National Forest
1997
- Redevelopment: City Council approves Newhall Redevelopment Plan
2000
- The 4-Time Mayor: Jo Anne Darcy departs after seventh term on City Council
2001
- 9/11: Candlelight procession to honor the victims, Newhall firefighters go to NY
- Deputy Jake: Kuredjian shot and killed during raid of James Allen Beck’s house
- Spineflower: San Fernando Valley Spineflower, believed extinct, declared endangered after rediscovery at Newhall Ranch, challenge for developers
2002
- Caravalho to Ken: Ken Pulskamp becomes City Manager
- Old Glory: John Quigley sits in the limbs of a large oak tree threatened by road expansion, $1M+ spent on security and tree-moving
- On Screen: City creates film office, confirming/building major role in entertainment industry
2003
- 1220: Goldmans buy back AM-1220 from Clear Channel, broadcast as KHTS and increase community presence
2004
- Lennar: Acquires Newhall Land and Farming Co.
2005
- For the Vets: Veterans Historical Plaza opens
- Blog: Santa Clarita’s biggest blogs go online (WRB in Fall ’05, SCVTalk in Spring ’06)
2006
- Best in State: Canyon High is 2006 California State Football champion
- Bubble: Median home price in SCV hits $620,000
2007
- $100M: Settlement struck for clean-up of Whittaker-Bermite; hardly end of story
- Burn: Buckweed fire scorches SCV
- Stay Out: Tony Zinnanti, local attorney, leads crusade to have pedophile Jack McLellan prohibited from visiting SCV
- COC East: Canyon Country community college campus commences classes
2008
- Newhall Memorial Hospital: Expansion drama
- Disclosure: Bob Kellar refuses to disclose sources of income and may face jail time
2010
- Library Infamy: Santa Clarita makes national news and will inspire state legislation with hasty library takeover
- CVC: Cross Valley Connector finally completed
2011
- General Plan: City Council adopts One Valley One Vision
2012
- Literary Crown Jewel: The new Newhall Library opens (presumably)
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Chick-Fil-A? Seriously I am quite smitten
2011: iHeart apologizes to Bob Kellar for the cheap shot
Seriously. Exactly how “big” and “important” was the Keller dust up? I had no idea that it had “changed our day-to-day lives”.
I took five seconds to do a search and found this:
On June 24, 2008, the City Council approved the Non-Motorized Transportation Plan
Not as juicy as “Kellergate”, but unlike “Kellergate” it may actually fit the requirements of your project if not some not-so-hidden agenda.
OK, when I said “we” I wasn’t being rhetorical. This is a collaborative list and several people contributed ideas. The Kellar one didn’t happen to be mine. So for all of these, I’d say endorse or critique the idea, not the messenger–that would just be super.
IHeartSCV, noted Kellar hater.
Uh huh. And yet you and your co-collaborators felt it met the criteria for your feel good 25 years as a city project.
It’s a cheap shot no matter how far you try and kick the can.
The Kellar story was a legitimate one when it occurred. If there is something different that should take its place I say name it.
Yeah, I agree. It had all the elements of a really great story and it carried on for a long time. It had multiple complications, a climax and a release. He publicly wrestled with whether or not to comply and said that because of the ordeal, he’d never run for public office again. In the end, his roster of clients was pretty clean, hardly anyone who would have had significant interests before the council. If you consider that his time up until then on the council overlapped with both our most robust expansion as a city and the real estate boom, where homes were selling in a matter of days.
That a city council person wouldn’t disclose his income or sources of income for year is a really big deal. That he apparently made a point to avoid conflicts of interest in his business dealings spoke highly of his ethics. And let’s keep in mind that this happened in the weeks before an election. This was a really big deal, and a great story.
“Will it move the electorate? I think not. Bob Kellar will still finish comfortably in first place.”
-Tim Myers, West Ranch Beacon, March 12, 2008
And it “changed our day-to-day lives” exactly how?
I didn’t write the criteria for this list, I’m just asking how this tempest in a teapot qualifies.
We’re looking for big, important stories and they can take several different shapes, and of course, we’re just brainstorming. IMO, the “proud racist” episode was more of a flashpoint (national media coverage, etc.), but it’s still a really interesting story and it was a big deal at the time. Had he ultimately refused to comply, as did for about a week, he would have been in very big trouble indeed. Instead, he turned it around, came out clean and won re-election against a tough field.
flash·point/ˈflaSHpoint/
Noun:
1.A place, event, or time at which trouble, such as violence or anger, flares up.
I understand it’s a work in progress, but do you think the Sheriff was readying the riot gear? It was not that big a deal. I agree, the “racist” incident meets the above qualifications far better than this one does.
I assume your “IHeartSCV, noted Kellar hater” was ironic, and in fact he has no axe to grind with Kellar, I have no way of knowing, I’ll take your word for it. It still seems like a cheap shot.
The Lowe’s on Golden Valley and the Historic Preservation Ordinance have had more of an impact than this did.
Looks like Tim is batting .000
Bob Kellar finished second in 2008 (behind Laurie Ender) … and second in 2004 (behind Cameron Smyth)
And don’t forget about his predictions three years ago that Tim Ben would finish 3rd in 2010 (he didn’t) and would be elected to the City Council in 2012.
http://www.the-signal.com/archives/19240/
2010 – Frank Ferry publicly refers to outspoken opposition of development projects as “developmental terrorism”, and encourages developers and/or property owners to sue such “terrorists” for libel or slander.
You must consider adding the City’s Council controversy and split decision regarding bidding the waste hauling franchise agreements in 2001-2002. These agreements will save residents at least $25,000,000 over the life of the agreement. Ferry and JoAnn Darcy wanted to continue to allow Waste Management (who they tried to characterize as an important local business rather than national corporation with extensive legal issues) to dictate the terms and have no competition. Cameron Smyth and Weste wanted to open the award up to competition and Kellar finally came around to agree with that. While the business community (Don Fleming et.al.) and the non profits (including Tim Ben Boydston) and the City rallied around Waste Management (because they often got free service from them), the amount being overcharged to customers versus other areas was just too high. To me this is a top 10 item because it was very controversial and went straight to the heart of whether the City Council and Staff was more interested in protecting the GOBY or in the pocketbooks of residents.
Also top 15 would be the open space votes and how the City stacked the deck to get the second initiative passed. I’m sure Jim Farley could write a book on this!
Also, some points on the bankruptcy of RFI (Whitaker Bermite) and City’s court loss on the value of the Cross Valley Connector eminent domain suit (around $25,000,000) could be included with this entire topic , the announcement of the Cemex mine plan (and multitude of unsupported bills introduced by “pass the Buck”), the approval of OVOV last year, the suit by CLWA against the City over the size of the Newhall Redevelopment area, and the approval of Newhall Ranch are all topic’s I’d consider for the list.
You’re right, the waste contract story was huge. Smyth really made his mark there. In retrospect, it seems laughable that WM would have been regarded as local business, and it also seems laughable that we wouldn’t put something that big out to bid. But WM really played it well. They had a public face and he was at every big charity auction, outspending everyone.
Funny how so much of that charitable giving vanished after the contract was signed.
I always wondered what percentage of the overcharges WM used as donations… My view always was that overcharging all the trash customers was not an appropriate vehicle for funding the local non-profits.
Like the government, they know how to spend our money better than we do.
- Central Park
- Santa Clarita Sports Complex
- Aquatics Center
- Canyon Country Library
- Newhall Community Center
- Skate Park
- Transit system
- Recreational trail system
- Open Space Preservation District
- Conservation of thousands of acres of land in Elsmere Canyon, Placerita Canyon, Towsley Canyon, Whitney Canyon, and Wildwood Canyon.
- Defeat of the Las Lomas mega development
- Recruiting Princess Cruises
- Recruiting Mann Biomedical
- Recruiting Advanced Bionics
- Downtown Newhall beautification
- Soledad Canyon Road and Via Princessa Metrolink stations
I may come up with more after I drink my coffee.
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That’s all fine RemStar, but don’t you have anything that really affected or day to day lives? You know, like Kellar tearing a tag off a mattress?
Metrolink is a good one. Especially how it became so important post-quake.
This is really exciting. It’s wild how many really big events fade into memory. Revisiting some of these will be really interesting.
A few thoughts to add -
Population growth from 87-12. I seem to recall seeing about 65,000 when we arrived in 1990.
Removal of Valencia logo on west side hill – umbrella name of Santa Clarita.
Disney Ranch?
Newhall Bike Thanksgiving Dinner – grassroots
Related to Earthquake & Fires – limited freeway access out of SCV. And related tragic issues including current 14/5 construction and carpool lanes.
SCOPE.
Castaic school debate
What about the Ranch? It’s been there since the 50s. Do you mean the slated expansion in 2013?
Excuse typo. Traffic issues.
So you’re texting and driving? :-O
Saugus speedway closing
AND THE NUMBER ONE STORY OF 1987-2012….
wait for it…
…
…
Jill Klajic throwing the paperweight at Jo Anne Darcy.
LEON! You should have prefaced that with a SPOILER ALERT. >:O
For the record here, the Kellar story was one of my suggestions, and I make no apologies for it.
When IHeart first brought up the idea of celebrating Santa Clarita’s 25th anniversary with a series of articles, his description of it was worded a little differently, and my reading of it resulted in a list that included major news events, not necessarily a dry re-hashing of a series of events such mall or park openings, nor necessarily something that changed everyone’s life. To me the Kellar story is interesting and illustrative of local political controversies which come and go in this town on a regular basis, and have since Jill Klajic tossed that paperweight. The story also was ironic in that it featured a man who spent a good deal of his life enforcing the law refusing to abide by a law.
At any rate, you can call it a “cheap shot” if you like; the fact remains it was a major story at the time and generated a lot more interest in local politics than the city approving a non-motorized transportation plan.
I probably still don’t have the phrasing quite right–my hope was to be a little vague which is why I ended with “you get the idea.” I agree, as Linda and Mike and Alpiner have suggested, that something being a big story is interesting and important in itself. Shared touchpoints from the past help build SCV culture. Leon, for example, mentioned Klajic’s paperweight throw jokingly but that’s quite seriously one of the first things you think of when you hear her name now.
If generating “a lot more interest in local politics” was included on the list of criteria for submission then the Kellar story would qualify. Cheap shot.
1995 First Santa Clarita Marathon
2007 First time The Amgen Tour of California came to town.
In God We Trust placed behind council members in chambers, Should be placed on the wall they are facing.
We can’t forget this event:
2011 – Local man successfully campaigns to remove unnecessary quotes from “In God We Trust,” unleashing the full power of these words.
Hello iHeart, Linda, et al. –
I think what rubs the wrong way about the Kellar citation is that it takes a routine news item – Bob initially thinking he didn’t need to disclose the identities of individual home buyers & sellers who paid commissions on their real estate transactions to his company – and elevates it to the status of a Big Deal.
Over the years there have been many transgressions by members of the city council and other local public agencies that are equally run-of-the mill – such as Jan Heidt mistakenly registering as an American Independent – and some which were far more consequential to the agencies they represented – such as Jill Klajic using city stationery to undermine a 4-1 city council vote.
In fact, I believe there is merit to what you say about the “Klajic paperweight” thing – most people who remember Klajic at all probably think “paperweight.” But why is that? It’s not the act of boisterously “returning” a Christmas present from then-Mayor Jo Anne Darcy that makes it a Big Deal. It’s what it represented. Klajic was upset with Jo Anne and the rest of the council for cracking down on her for one of her significantly more serious conduct/ethics violations.
Including that item about Bob – coupled with the failure to include far more pivotal news items in which Bob was involved – also marginalizes Bob’s contributions to the fabric of our city. I would argue that Bob’s neglect to disclose what everybody thought was confidential client information pales in comparison to Bob’s involvement in the merger of the CC and SCV chambers of commerce, the role he played to get DTSC to order & monitor the cleanup of Whittaker-Bermite, the *national* headlines he generated with his comments about illegal immigration, and a variety of other things.
You might even want to use that as a test. What comes to mind when you think “Klajic”? Paperweight. What comes to mind when you think “Kellar”? I don’t know – I suppose it depends on your area of interest – but for most people, it certainly isn’t that forgettable SEI filing.
This was supposed to be a brainstorming session, not a complete list of events that have happened over the years. Whether the Kellar incident makes the final cut remains to be seen. But I do think it’s amusing how you have rushed in to minimize what happened.
Kellar failed to disclose his gross income for the years 2002-2004, a violation of state law. The failure to disclose the sources of his income for 2005 (a very good year for real estate) was a secondary violation. He ultimately came through with the required disclosures, but only after consulting with attorneys and considerable public uproar. And “everyone” did not think “Bob’s” income sources were “confidential.” If “everyone” thought that, no one would bother to fill in the forms and the FPPC wouldnt have investigated.
What do I think of when I hear the name “Bob Kellar?” As a matter of fact, I do think of income disclosure controversy, the land deal with COC, and the “proud racist” incident. But then, “Bob” and I don’t hang out much. I’m sure his friends and Chamber buddies have a different view.
And as for Jill Klajic, stay tuned. There is/was more to that lady as well!
Yeah, hardly a day goes by that I don’t think of how “Kellargate” has affected my day to day life. ::)
?? What kind of a person would speak pejoratively about the chamber of commerce?
Did you go to the Sheriff’s with it so it could be investigated?
Reminds me of all of the friends of Bob who were screaming from the mountaintops to leave him alone, even before he complied, which was another interesting component of the story. And the local VIPs who thought Bob was above the FPPC’s rules, because he was, well, Bob.
Our library take-over was cited, followed and studied internationally (England), and also drove change to national recommendations by the American Library Association.
I thought positive, feel-good accomplishments – like the opening of the activities center and the takeover of the libraries – weren’t allowed?
Writing a history of a place & time is never easy.
But maybe I could offer some counsel and use, for the first time, my undergrad degree in history.
I’m not sure the year-by-year list will be as useful as establishing a theme, one of the interplay between development & growth vs old timers & slow-growthers and put it in the context of eras:
1987-1992: Somewhat akin to a revolution in local governance, anti-growth & slow-growth folks feeling their oats, feeling empowered. Tabula rasa for the SCV, developer interests/county nervous at all the energy. We are the biggest incorporation in California history after decades of struggle against Downtown LA. Something to be proud of, something new and a bit scrappy. But who are we and how do we effectively use the power we’ve been given? How do you draw the line between responsible growth and sprawl? These are the questions we’re facing.
1992-1997: Santa Clarita grows into a well-respected city with its own traditions and institutions. It’s challenged big time in the quake of 1994, but successfully coordinates the rebuild/recovery effort of most of the valley. By 1997, it’s trying to establish something akin to a downtown core, and it’s recruiting high value corporations like Princess to anchor new developments. It’s also beginning to recognize the utility of Old Town Newhall, something that is historic in a town where most people don’t know or appreciate history.
But this era also spells the end of the reign of the old school city founders; now we’re seeing real divisions in our council. Ferry represents the new school, Valencia people, invested in schools but not so anti-growth as some of the founders. Buck has moved on to Congress too and most of the original city council has moved on.
1997-2006: Boomtown USA Rapid growth, the slow-growther/old resident contingent is utterly cast aside as the City embraces growth-via-sales tax revenue strategy. This is the era where we see all these pro-business programs and strategies, but few are as successful as when the City successfully recruited a major tenant in Princess cruises. Strip malls abound, the city gets all comprehensive about transportation and aggressively builds out parks, roads, and other infrastructure.
This is also the era of the celebrity realtor types (think guys in $1000 suits driving Hummers), the big corporate sponsorhips (oh how we loved Vital Express!). Fast times, loose morals, refis, HELOCs, The Signal’s Society Pages, cranes, earth movers, and tractors.
Slow growth- what’s that? The Lynne Plambecks of the world continue to shout about water resources, conservation, land use but no one’s listening even as we experience droughts and the growing realization that Whittaker Bermite is a poisonous heart in the center of town. A man climbs in a tree in Pico Canyon for 70 days to make a last stand for the environment.
This is also the era when radical change -driven in no small part by market-oriented policy from the feds- occurs in our Pater Familias, Newhall Land and Farming. The venerable institution gets bought & sold, spells out its vision for Newhall Ranch (Valencia 2.0), etc. By the end of this era it’s parent company is in BK, and today, it’s barely recognizable, having moved out of its property opposite City Hall and towards the west side, where it hopes its to find prosperity.
2006-2011 : SCV continues to boom right up until 2007,
when I should have sold my condowhen it, just like the rest of the country, enters into a huge recession. Home values plummet, strip malls vacate, all but the most dedicated real estate professionals melt away (think Petz) and suddenly we’re facing unfamiliar territory: the population is actually contracting.The City gets an A for reading the tea leaves early on, cutting 10% across the board (or whatever the number was) instituting hiring freezes, and seeking other efficiencies. Amazingly it continues to build: we finally get our dreamed-for Cross Valley Connector (killed by the slow-growthers a few decades ago), Newhall is slowly-but-surely rebuilt, we get a new library building, new aquatic center, an awesome new skatepark and more.
More disasters occur but our City is truly professional in its responses to the terrible fires of 2007.
But for all its professionalism and efficiency, the City feels less democratic and harder to influence. The Council, now almost completely pro-growth, developer friendly and pro-business to a fault, ignores its residents when it sees fit (library takeover, $1000 donation limit), embraces vox populi at times for the easy win (bike lanes, and remember that ridiculous vote of support for the anti anchor baby bill?), but refuses to update its outmoded election model. Despite only 17% on average participation in Council elections, moving the elections to November is a forbidden topic as is establishing council districts to represent people who are disenfranchised. Other large “at-large” cities have been sued for this model, but in Santa Clarita even the idea of districts is a long way off.
Census data shows how much the valley has changed since incorporation. About 1 in 3 are Latino, 1 in 10 are asian, Valencia is getting older and the growth is occurring in the North and West sides of the valley. The character & might of schools are changing as a result.
Media, meanwhile, remains the same or worse as it was in 1987 after both the Daily News and LA Times pulled out.
Anyway just some things to think about. Obviously this is biased towards my views but all histories will be biased.
Hi Jeff! Good review except for your comments about district elections. I disagree in the strongest terms. Maybe it would be instructive to go back before 1987. Canyon Country hated Valencia and Saugus hated Newhall … and to some degree the feeling was mutual. The biggest *internal* obstacle to cityhood was getting everyone from all sides of town on the same page after decades of cross-town animosity. (Scott Newhall didn’t help with his incessant promotion of “Valencia Valley” as the name for the former “Newhall-Saugus Area” and even earlier “Soledad Township.” Fortunately everybody was able to put aside their differences long enough to create “Santa Clarita.”
What’s it got to do with district elections? It would be civil war all over again as each side of town fights the other for money. As it stands, each council member is responsible for the entire valley, not one subsection of it, and must stand the scrutiny of the entire electorate, not just one subsection of it.
BTW the Daily News was only good when Pat Aidem was in charge, and the L.A. Times was only good when it had Carol Rock. Both are still involved in this valley – Carol with KHTS, and Pat in a different way, as PIO for Providence.
So good.
I feel like I’ve just been transported through the last two decades of my life. You really captured it.
Morris Media takes “reins” not “reigns.” Or maybe not.
Whoops! The offending mistake has been corrected, thanks.
Valencia High opened in 1994 to become the 4th high school of the Hart School District. La Mesa opened at the same time I believe. The doubling of the student population over the past 15 years in the valley lead to 4 new schools opening 6?? years ago — Rio Norte, West Ranch, Rancho Pico, and Golden Valley.