It’s not just the water and great weather!

Katherine & Caroline Squires (sisters) made the trek to Downtown LA yesterday to fight the first phase of Newhall Ranch, Landmark Village. Katherine and I once went on a tour of the Santa Clara river valley (I wrote about it way back in 2006) and she’s a neat lady, very sharp, and quite passionate about preserving the environment. After reading her account about how she and others who were treated, imagine how you’d feel if you were at the Hall of Administration yesterday:

We just got back from the Los Angeles County board meeting in downtown.  We were there for the hearing on the proposed Newhall Ranch’s ‘Landmark Village’ development project along the Santa Clara River.  Having spoke at other government meetings in the past we knew going into it that the odds were stacked against us and we would not receive much support from our elected leaders…we just didn’t know that it was going to go down as one of the worst experiences we have ever had with our county government.  We thought it was common knowledge that a public hearing is scheduled in order to have our elected leaders hear the public and consider their input,  allowing citizens this ONE opportunity to speak their mind…but here is the reality:

We dropped what we needed to do today (work, etc.) to drive almost 2 hours to downtown through stop-and-go morning traffic (insert eye roll here).  When we arrived we were informed that the 9:30 a.m. meeting would actually start an hour and a half late.  Naturally, you could understand how delighted we were to have risen so early to be there on time.

While we waited patiently for our turn to speak, we had the pleasure of watching the Board Members be awarded praise for their great deeds in the community.  They accepted compliments and kudos from a variety of individuals and delayed the meeting for another half hour while they patted themselves on the back.

We were in for a shock once the hearing actually began.  The first thing Mayor Antonovich (this is what he insists on being called) proclaimed was that each speaker would have just 60 seconds to give their comments…instead of the usual 3 minutes.  We both questioned why Antonovich had not warned us sooner about this major setback.  He declared that he was enforcing this rule because there were so many people commenting.  However, in reality, it wasn’t a ridiculous number of people who wanted to speak.

We all had to quickly re-draft our remarks while we were hustled to the podium to speak.  We all came prepared with 3 minute presentations.  The fact we were given such an insignificant amount of time to speak with virtually no warning seemed to be a deliberate ploy to undermine the public commentary.  We could not listen to our fellow speakers because we were quickly racing to change our comments.  This was very unfair…especially when the first people speaking, those in favor of the project, were given unlimited time.

As the members of the public spoke to the Board we were accorded very little respect.  While concerned citizens poured their hearts out, Antonovich chowed down on snacks, had multiple side-bar conversations with his assistant, and at one point even left the room while someone was speaking!  He didn’t excuse himself first, rather he just stood up and left.  The person speaking didn’t know whether to continue or not, as it was unclear if anyone was even in charge of the meeting at that point.  The speaker questioned whether or not the meeting could even proceed legally, seeing as how there were only 2 of the 5 Board Members in the room.  The speaker was told to continue!

The behavior of the other Board Members was no better.  One of them appeared to be flirting with two young ladies at his side.  The other Board Members drifted in and out of the room while people were speaking or slouched in their chairs looking indifferent and bored.  It was embarrassing to witness such unprofessionalism and frustrating that they demonstrated such inappropriate behavior.  Could you imagine if your workplace followed such an example?  Antonovich failed to demonstrate any respect for the process.  We wanted to say something to him regarding the inherent contempt for the citizens evident in this situation however, that would have wasted precious speaking time!  It takes longer to microwave a hot pocket than we were given time to speak!

The silver lining was that a plethora of environmental organizations were there to combat all the developers (the people in suits) that were in the room: Heal the Bay, The Audubon Society, Sierra Club, SCOPE, Friends of the Santa Clara River, Center for Biological Diversity, and numerous concerned citizens.  They gave very detailed comments as to the problems associated with this project.  We were impressed with their ability to quickly revamp their comments and give their evidence with grace and professionalism in such a hostile setting.  The Landmark Village project has lasting and detrimental consequences for our valley and our neighboring cities and it deserved more than an hour of the Board Members’ time.

We ask you, who gets up at the crack of dawn, takes off work, coordinates rides, writes comments, drives through hours of traffic, pays for parking, and gets ready to speak in front of a crowd (most people would rather have a root canal), only to have their speaking time cut down to 60 seconds and then be given no response and even worse…a lack of respect by our government leaders who are supposed to reflect the voice of the people?!

We do and so did the other speakers!  We did it and will continue to fight because it is the right thing to do…it would just be reassuring if our elected leaders would do the right thing as well.

-Katherine and Caroline

“The Squires Sisters”

With a response like that from elected officials, is it any wonder activists resort to the Courts? That’s why I’m never sympathetic when some local water official complains in the media that lawsuits are expensive and hard to deal with. Without access to the courts, these activists -who spend their free time reading EIRs and studying the land- would literally have no way to get their legitimate concerns heard. The system in LA County has always been stacked against them and it continues to this day. 

Also, isn’t ironic that after 24 years of City hood, the Council is beginning to resemble the Supervisors, at least on some issues?

American ideas about how to live and build communities have changed dramatically over time. For decades, families fled the dense urban grid for newer types of neighborhoods that felt safer, more private, even pastoral. Through their research, Garrick and colleague Wesley Marshall are now making the argument that we got it all wrong: We’ve really been designing communities that make us drive more, make us less safe, keep us disconnected from one another, and that may even make us less healthy.

What’s great about the SCV is that we have examples of both patterns. Newhall, which was built up before and during World War 2, is largely grid patterned, with straight streets intersecting others forming real city blocks. Parts of Canyon Country are like this too.

Valencia, built 30 years after World War 2 -and with the benefit of a new nearby highway & cheap gasoline- was constructed with meandering low-volume streets, cul-de-sacs, and huge artery roads designed to carry all the traffic.

Newhall vs Valencia

Valencia is attractive for different reasons. The street your house is on is almost private, with few people driving on it unless they are your neighbors. And because it’s low traffic, the street becomes usable space to you and your family: I wonder how many kids of my generation got scrapes and bruises playing street hockey, basketball, or football in a cul-de-sac. But Valencia practically guarantees that you’ll be dependent on cars: the street layout makes transit just about impossible, requiring you to hike a mile or more to the nearest bus stop. It also makes us dependent on gigantic arterials, like the superhighway that is Newhall Ranch Road. And finally, if any new developments come to your area, or a small neighborhood road is opened as a cut-through; watch out! Angry people will beat down the doors at City Hall.

All this dependency on cars and big streets makes us less safe as a whole compared to street grids:

“A lot of people feel that they want to live in a cul-de-sac, they feel like it’s a safer place to be,” Marshall says. “The reality is yes, you’re safer – if you never leave your cul-de-sac. But if you actually move around town like a normal person, your town as a whole is much more dangerous.”

Of course stuffy academics arguing about statistical likelihood of getting in a serious car accident isn’t going to change consumer preference that much. That’s why you see in renderings of Newhall Ranch, Newhall Land continues the same patterns it established in Valencia: winding, confusing streets that ensure privacy but make you dependent on cars. The irony is that we live in such communities to isolate ourselves from car traffic, but these communities make us more dependent on cars over all.

Hey, while we’re questioning the underpinnings of American Suburbia, let’s not let the color beige off without comment. Beige is not just the dominant color in men’s closets in the SCV, it’s also the dominant color of development. And Folks in Irvine -practically a twin of Valencia but much larger- are sick of it and have decided to challenge conformity and are even souring on big-box retail:

 As desirable as Irvine is, it’s safe to say the master-planned community isn’t exactly known for avant-garde architecture, something that became clear earlier this year in reader responses to stories about the launching of a city motto contest.

Yuck. Seriously why even bother with the fake windows on the "second" floor?

“Irvine: We Have 62 Different Words for Beige,” one commenter suggested.

“Where Bland is in Demand,” another offered.

“Sixteen Zip Codes, Six Floor Plans,” a third said.

“Sorry, I Thought This Was My House,” yet another reader replied.

You get the idea.

…

“Uninterrupted blank wall surfaces should be avoided along all building facades,” the plans say, and design should discourage features that “hinder pedestrian activity, such as big box retail.”

No dominant architectural style? No big box retailers? In Irvine?

I think this is one area where the SCV is actually ahead of the curve. As John Boston once wrote, in the SCV, you can visit Tuscany, a New England fishing village (Bridgeport) and the Old West (Newhall) all in one day! It can’t be long now until we have some Asian-themed developments pop up.

But still, we could follow Irvine’s lead at least insofar as our shopping centers are concerned. More developments like The Patios, less like Valencia Marketplace & Golden Valley shopping center, ok?

There’s a United Nations stealth program at work in the SCV. It is called the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

ICLEI’s job is to implement U.N. policies in local government. In December 2010, the City Council signed an agreement with ICLEI and delivered your representative government into the hands of a regional nonelected board. This allows them to shirk their responsibilities by using ICLEI toolkits.

Why should you care?

ICLEI = sustainable development = One Valley, One Vision = high-density housing, traffic congestion, open space where access is not allowed, partnering with favored businesses using your tax dollars, control over your life, private property restrictions and seizure, increased taxes, fees and regulations.

Tell the City Council to terminate its contract with ICLEI. Let’s do what is best for the SCV, not the U.N.

If we really are under the dominion of the secular humanist United Nations (peace be upon them), then I expect some payback for towing the progressive line for 5+ years on this blog. Seriously, where’s my pay day for getting beaten up on here talking about bikes and buses and sustainability and the merits of more density? Oh and let’s not forget how I supported the SEIU-backed library workers or friended George Soros on Facebook too!

I’ve been softening the field for ICLEI’s clandestine activities in the SCV for years, and now that we’re exposed, I want my money!

From the Archives: Groundbreaking from CalArts on Vimeo.

From CalArts’ blog (new to me, looks really good!):

We’ve posted an audio track from the actual groundbreaking ceremony in which Thomas Lowe, then-president of the Newhall Land & Farming Company, addresses the audience on a vision for Valencia and how CalArts fits into that vision. The audio has been superimposed on film footage capturing the grading and construction of the campus and Main Building.

We’ve all seen the old-timey pictures of Newhall, Valencia, and Saugus before they were built, but having a video of the landscape back then is really special. Think of how new this place must have felt to everyone involved. And think of the context of the time: unending and deadly war in Vietnam, anti-war protests, race riots/rebellion in Watts, Newark and other cities, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, desegregation and busing  just around the corner, the hippie movement, urban decay and the end of a liberal epoch in American politics (Nixon became president in 1969 and expanded some big government policies but presaged the next 40 years of politics).

Valencia, a community built in the “New Town” school of development, came into being in this environment, just as the golden age of American cars was at hand and just as the interstate highway system was maturing. It was a suburb, but better than the obsolete Levittown-model that preceded it. To those who first toured the homes and home sites and saw COC & CalArts being built, it must have felt like a new world, or at least, a world apart from what they were used to in the SFV or elsewhere. If you think of it in that light, can you really blame the persistent no-growth undercurrent that followed?

Great stuff. I hope more old SCV videos get posted on the internet, there’s probably still a lot of old Super 8 footage out there.

Anyone who knows Master Blogger Jeffrey knows full well that he is a far left wing ideolog <sic> who lives in a high density building complex on the wrong side of town, has few responsibilities, a low paying job, no children, rides around SCV on a bicycle, and believes many more of our tax $$’s should be spent to sacrifice auto traffic lanes for more bike lanes. Nevermind that he once darned killed himself riding his bike into a telephone pole.

It’s all pretty accurate, save for the part about riding my bike into a telephone pole. For the record, I don’t really know what happened when I crashed while riding to my low paying job with few responsibilities, though I’m pretty sure that during the 45 minutes that I was blacked out, I was transported into a bizarre & wonderful future SCV where I faced a critical, life-defining choice.

Aside from that, yes, I do encourage alternate transportation modes and better land use in the SCV. In fact, I had a brainstorm last night while walking around town with my dog and wife and being suspicious of every Prius that drove near me.

You see, the City has got me thinking about Lyons Avenue and zoning with their Lyons Avenue Corridor plan that will be discussed on July 21 in Old Orchard. As Mike said in a comment recently, this is one part of town that could probably benefit from a little density increase. I’m wary because I live here, but it got me thinking: we need more park & public space here too.

And it just so happens we have some really great open space right there in literally the no-man’s land between Newhall and Valencia. It’s enjoyed once a year by hundreds or thousands of people, it’s grassy, cool, and quite large. I’m talking about the green space that divides Orchard Village Road:

Take a step with me into far left ideolog <sic> land for a moment and imagine a modest white picket fence with gates surrounding all or part of both green spaces above. Picture a couple of un-signaled crosswalks on the east and west sides of Orchard Village that would raise awareness of pedestrians in the area. And envision families relaxing in between the streets, on the median there, enjoying a cool summer evening breeze or tossing a frisbee with their kids. Next, picture the businesses that might sprout up in the decimated Ralphs shopping center to service those people.

In other words, picture what we enjoy there every year on the 4th of July. Only year round.

This is a beautiful space that’s we’re already paying to keep up (sprinklers every night, mowing the lawn every week), but we can’t really use it. I know this is radical, left-wing thinking, but I can’t help it. It’s who I am. It would seem to me this would be a very cheap and effective way to increase park/open space land in the Newhall area.

Despite concerns raised online and in local media reports over implications of the gas company’s stepped-up drilling near Interstate 5, no hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is taking place there, a SoCalGas spokeswoman said.

“At SoCalGas’ Honor Rancho facility, our current project involves drilling injection and withdrawal wells to increase the storage capacity of our underground storage reservoir,” spokeswoman Denise King said Friday.

“Our drilling operations do not involve fracking.”

That’s an out and out denial right there.

Apparently the site is a major storage facility for the Gas Company:

“SoCalGas purchases most of its natural gas supplies from out-of-state sources,” King said. “We store natural gas more than a mile beneath the surface in porous sandstone, which is capped by solid rock.

“Our storage facility plays an important role, particularly during the high winter demand periods when customers are using natural gas for heating,” she said.

What was confusing about the initial reporting on this is that the word “production” was mentioned several times. Indeed, it’s still used in Jim Holt’s latest piece. He says CPUC documents state that “the gas company wants to boost production and storage of natural gas from about 2,000 barrels daily to ’4,500 barrles per day on a continuous basis for several years.”

My bad for reading hydraulic fracturing into the words “natural gas production” but kudos for the Signal for clearing it up.

SIGNAL

After thinking about this some more and reading all your responses to our initial story on this, I’m struck by how useful and productive our land is in the SCV from a capitalist perspective. Let’s review all the ways in which the land in the SCV has been productive:

First it was used as ranching territory after Henry Mayo Newhall bought it. To some extent, it’s still used in that way, cows still roam land on the Rancho. They may not for long, if Newhall Ranch is built.

Then, at the beginning of the oil boom, folks down in Pico Canyon managed to stand up an oil well and tap crude. An oil refinery followed in what was then the “Newhall Saugus” area. Wealth, for a little while, flowed from the ground.

Then in the early to mid 20th century, the land was used for farming. As SCV old timers remember, onion fields and other produce was grown all over the place. For a long time, this made up the core of the pater familias’ business interests. In some areas, you can still see how the land is used in this way.

Finally, in the 1960s, the land underwent massive change as entire communities were built. I suppose someone, somewhere, at some time determined the land would be even more productive if it held houses rather than patches of agriculture. Their decision to do this was no doubt based in part on the availability of cheap oil extracted from land elsewhere in the world.That continued for decades, a city was born, and voila! 250,000 people live here.

And there was one other productive use of the land: throughout these periods, land in the SCV was and continues to be used for shooting films, television and advertisements.

But now today, someone (Newhall Land?) is benefiting from materials beneath the land again by using the latest technology, hydraulic fracturing.  Here’s how that economic model works according to Geology.com:

Mineral rights also include the rights to any oil and natural gas that exist beneath a property. The rights to these commodities can be sold or leased to others. In most cases, oil and gas rights are leased. The lessee is usually uncertain if oil or gas will be found so they generally prefer to pay a small amount for a lease rather than pay a larger amount to purchase. A lease gives the lessee a right to test the property by drilling and other methods. If drilling discovers oil or gas of marketable quantity and quality it may be produced directly from the exploratory well.

This isn’t a unique story (or even a very interesting one) but it shows that even though the housing market has gone bust and the SCV is nearly built-out,  enterprising people will find other productive ways to use our land. And make no mistake about it, whoever owns this land is getting a cut of the fracking operation, of whatever gas is being extracted from the ground.

I wish the Signal would do some more reporting on this. Who owns the land? Is it really a hydraulic fracking operation? What’s the regulatory approval process for this in California? What chemicals are they using in their operation? Can we expect more of these types of operations on land in the SCV that is difficult to build on? What’s the City’s take on this, do they view this as economic development that should be encouraged?

Over the next three years, the gas company wants to boost production and storage of natural gas from about 2,000 barrels daily on a good day to “4,500 barrels per day on a continuous basis for several years,” state documents said.

It also operates two existing brine-injection wells, which are wells of water saturated with sodium chloride, or salt.

Farming communities in Ohio have voiced concerns over salty water from brine-injection wells seeping into their farmland.

So what is hydraulic fracking? This YouTube video does a better job explaining it than Wikipedia:

So now that we know that it is happening in the SCV, I have some questions. For starters, am I crazy to question the injection of salty brine into our ground when we already have a problem with salty chloride in this valley? And, if the Signal report is accurate, how come it took over a year for us to learn about hydraulic fracking in North Valencia? The first time we heard of this was in a frackin’ letter to the editor last week! Is the City aware of this, and if so, when did it become aware of this? It’s happening just north of a brand-spanking new Cross Valley Connector segment. How about Cameron Smyth, Sharon Runner, or Buck McKeon? Do their offices know about this? Usually our local politicians boast proudly whenever new industry or activity occurs in the SCV, but they’ve been silent as the Gas Company expands its operations.

Stepping back from the SCV & Sempra for a moment, this whole fracking business makes a lot of people nervous. ProPublica, a non-profit journalism firm, has reported on it for years and has entire section of their site devoted to news about fracking. Where to start? How about what we don’t know about fracking:

Drilling companies assert that the destructive forces unleashed by the fracturing process, including the sometimes toxic chemicals that keep the liquid flowing, remain safely sealed as much as a mile or more beneath the earth, far below drinking water sources and the rest of the natural environment.

[But] it remains unclear how far the tiny fissures that radiate through the bedrock from hydraulic fracturing might reach, or whether they can connect underground passageways or open cracks into groundwater aquifers that could allow the chemical solution to escape into drinking water. It is not certain that the chemicals – some, such as benzene, that are known to cause cancer – are adequately contained by either the well structure beneath the earth or by the people, pipelines and trucks that handle it on the surface. And it is unclear how the voluminous waste the process creates can be disposed of safely.

“This is a field where there is almost no research,” said Geoffrey Thyne, a former professor at the Colorado School of Mines and an environmental engineering consultant for local government officials in Colorado. “It is very much an emerging problem.”

Emerging problem indeed. This year, a documentary titled “Gasland” got nominated for best documentary picture at the Oscars. Gasland showed how residents of Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania had been negatively impacted by fracking. In one memorable scene, a resident of an area near a fracking well turned on his water faucet and lit his water on fire with a cigarette lighter.

And earlier this year in Arkansas, officials acknowledged that hydraulic fracking could be responsible in part for a scary earthquake swarm -including the largest quake in Arkansas in years- that hit the state.

Fracking in California, however, hasn’t received as much attention until recently. Last week, a bill requiring energy companies to release information on the chemicals used in the fracking process passed and is set to move on to the state’s Environmental Quality committee. In its report on the bill, the LA Times sheds some light on why there is fracking happening in our neck of the woods. It turns out there’s a gigantic oil formation called the Monterey Shale Formation which stretches from Stanislaus County all the way to northern LA County.

I expect we’ll hear more about this in the days and weeks to come. The SCV may have a rich petroleum history but that doesn’t mean its residents are going to let this occur just miles from homes without making a fuss.

Gasland trailer:

It’s also a great time of the year to visit Placerita Canyon. My wife and I hiked the 5.2 mile waterfall loop on Sunday. Here’s a pair of pics that hint at the beauty of the canyon, the creek, and the water falls this time of year:

Placerita Canyon is probably 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the SCV thanks to shady spots like this

There are actually at least three waterfalls in Placerita Canyon

If you’re tired of the rat race in the SCV and LA, you can’t get further away from it (yet be so close to it) than spending a few hours in Placerita Canyon, which is, after all, the spiritual birthplace of the legend that is SCV. The hike is pretty easy, and, if you’re so inclined, you can even climb up past the water falls using tree roots as your grip. Bring along a few snacks and take a break near the falls to make for the ultimate -and completely free- Sunday afternoon in the SCV.