The chords of an acoustic guitar pierced the cool night air as my wife and I emerged from a dark section on one of Valencia’s paseos. “What’s that noise?” we thought as our minds tried to separate the music from the automatic sprinklers, the rustling trees, our labored breath, and the rhythmic mechanical clicks of our bicycles.

As we rolled down the bridge, we heard it again: a beautiful guitar rhythm. Our eyes tried to make sense of the darkness around us, trying in vain to confirm what our ears were telling us: someone was making music in the middle of the night in Valencia.

Barefooted and in tattered jeans, the girl we came across couldn’t have been more than 15 years old, but here she was strumming away on her guitar and singing a Bob Dylan-esque folk song. We stopped to chat with this Siren on our own journey home.

When you don’t have a car in Santa Clarita scenes like the above play out often on Santa Clarita’s alternative transportation network. Whether on a smelly city bus, a relatively high-speed multi-use path, or a winding paseo shrouded by trees and populated by teens, your journey can often times become more interesting than your destination.

The Case of the Japanese Restaurant Waiters

Case in point: three weeks ago, I rode my bike from Newhall to attend the No Doubt tribute concert at Central Park. I met my wife and mother-in-law there, and we had a nice leisurely evening sitting in the soft cool grass. With about a half hour to the end of the concert, we decided to leave, and I hoped I could prove the value and utility of my bicycle by beating my wife to home.

But it didn’t work out that way.

As I navigated my way onto the bike path adjacent to Bouquet Junction, I was stopped cold by -of all things- a waiter from Kisho Japanese restaurant.

“Sir, excuse me, but do you have a cell phone?” he asked, an edge of panic in his voice.

Just then, two other men -another waiter and a 30 something man with a buzz-cut, in a black shirt, cargo shorts, and flip-flops- walked up behind cell-phone requesting Waiter #1.

“What for?” I asked.

“Sir, this man just violated a girl at our restaurant, and he’s trying to escape. We followed him all the way here and we want to call our restaurant,” he said.

I looked at the man, who appeared a bit intoxicated and quite angry that he was being followed on foot by two waiters.

“Fuck it man, just forget it man, these guys are crazy,” the man said to me with anger in his eyes.

I handed my phone over to the waiter who called his restaurant, advised them of his location, and asked the restaurant to call the Sheriff’s station.

Meanwhile, the suspected “violator” marched on down the path towards a gas station at the corner of Bouquet and Soledad. Hot on his heels was the other waiter, a 20 something Asian guy who stood about 5′6.

Many people, at this point, would have beat a path to get out of what looked like a tense situation. But I’m naturally curious, so I asked Waiter #1 for more information.

“He was just sitting there with his friends at the sushi bar and reached over and violated a 16 year old girl. The girl is in tears,” Waiter #1 told me. “When we caught him doing it, he ran from the restaurant and we followed him here.”

Waiter #1 was by now speaking rapidly, emotionally. He was clearly excited.

“My friend has a black belt” in some martial art or other, he told me, “and he’s going to kick this guy’s ass!” he continued, before running off to join his friend.

I glanced over at the Asian waiter, who by this time had physically stopped the suspected violator in the gas station lot. He was untying his apron, and rolling up his sleeves. He looked ready to pummel the suspect, but I guess the threat of force was enough: the suspect went and sat down on the curb.

I hung around that gas station for about 20 minutes, hoping to see a Deputy roll up to diffuse the situation. But the waiters apparently never called the Sheriff’s station, or Deputies were simply delayed in getting there, so I left.

Fortunately, not all of my bicycling encounters are so ugly or filled with tension, but I do often run into the darker side of the SCV at night on those trails.

Drugged out teens, homeless men, and mother and daughter in Newhall

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rode my bike through a park on a paseo and watched as a group of teens at a picnic table lit up a joint or a bowl of pot amid raucous laughter. It seems the paseos are a great place to stroll or walk by day, but by night they become the domain of teens, drug use and care-free summer fun.

Life in the slow lane also reveals Santa Clarita’s less fortunate, the folks I now call “The Bridge People.” These are the folks so down on their luck they call the underside of the Bouquet Bridge, or the small concrete railroad bridges in Newhall their home. I find them dozing off at mid day, in the early morning hours, or making camp at night. They sleep on concrete or in the sandy bed of a dried creek, oblivious to the 50,000 cars passing overhead or the mile long freight train that rolls through town once a day. I often spot them in small groups, huddling up with tattered old blankets or a sleeping bag or in some cases, just the shirt on their back. Their stench is noticeable even from a bike path, but to most of us, they’re out of sight and out of mind.

My travels by bus are no less full of curiosities. I’ve found that there are two demographics who primarily ride Santa Clarita city transit buses: car-less teenagers and Latinos, and occasionally the foreign students who attend COC. Their’s is a life of waiting to get from Point A to Point B, often for a half hour or more, followed by what must be a long walk from a bus stop on a major arterial into the heart of Valencia, Northbridge, or Canyon Country.On one trip back home late at night, I found myself quite upset as a young Latino mother boarded the bus with her three year old daughter. It was at least half past ten, and I wondered what mother in her right mind would have her three year old child out at night, that late on a city bus. She boarded in Old Orchard and left the bus at the Newhall Metrolink station, then walked up over the tracks to what I hope was her home.

All these encounters tempt me to go back to the auto-centric lifestyle; to give in, buy a car, and travel in a safe and insulated cage from Point A to Point B.

But then, as I set on my bike to accomplish some task, the question in my mind changes from, “How long will it take for me to get there,” to “What will I discover today on my bike ride?” For better or worse, I’m learning more about the people who call Santa Clarita home when I set out on my bike, and it’s an education I’d never get while in a car.

Which is what made the encounter with the Valencia Siren so sweet.

You have to realize that it was a surprising, almost spiritual, moment. Here we were all alone on a darkened paseo, trying to get home quickly when out of nowhere came this sweet voice and smooth guitar.

She told us her name was “Chelsea,” and that after working her summer job all day, all she wanted to do was play her guitar and sing. She said she often strolled up and down this section of the paseos to practice, and from what we could tell, she was quite good.

Around her neck was an old paisley scarf littered with buttons, one of which said, “Do one thing everyday that scares you.” Her other buttons reflected typical youthful optimism and simultaneous cynicism, but I was encouraged because Chelsea was at least involved and interested in the world beyond her safe, homogenous neighborhood. Here was a teenaged girl more interested in the arts than in getting high on a picnic bench in a darkened park.

When I asked her how old she was, she refused to answer, replying instead, “I’m ageless.”

We had a chuckle, took a photo, and parted ways, but on the rest of the ride home, I realized that having such experiences while travelling was, at least at one time, quite common and “ageless” in a way. Homer’s own Odyssey was interrupted by singing women, and the travels of Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, and countless others are tales of experiences during the journey.

My modest travels to and fro in Santa Clarita aren’t nearly so adventurous, but they’re equally as valuable. So thanks Chelsea and keep practicing!

A man who analyzes “thermal temperature changes in the air temperature” and “micro earthquakes” across the state says a 4.9 magnitude quake is “expected” to strike the Santa Clarita/Palmdale/Lancaster areas by Thursday.

Luke Thomas, the founder a website called QuakePrediction.com, posted a YouTube video today in which he points to a colored map of the Los Angeles region and says a “4.9 is possible from Santa Clarita to Lancaster” from July 29 to 31.

But don’t panic yet!

It’s important to note that QuakePrediction.com is not an official government website; indeed, Thomas notes on his site that it’s not owned or managed by the US Geological Survey, nor is it affiliated with the USGS.

Moreover, there’s no indication as to what data he uses to create his colored maps, which appear to be printed on 8.5 x 11 paper, nor does Thomas explain what his scientific or geologic credentials are.

Back in October 2007, Thomas was supposedly one person who accurately predicted an earthquake in the Bay Area. He got some coverage from a CBS outlet up there who, unsurprisingly, failed to ask him any critical questions. He told that news outlet that he analyzed “thermal temperature changes” in the air to predict earthquakes, and claimed he had a 75% success rate.

A glance at Thomas’ YouTube profile shows that he has posted some 70 quake prediction videos since he joined the site a year ago, and one could naturally conclude that if Thomas makes enough predictions, he’s bound to get a few hits in California, a place that straddles the eastern edge of the so-called “Ring of Fire” and is no stranger to tectonic activity.

Authoritative earthquake websites, such as the Southern California Earhquake Data Center, use ground sensors and other measurements to record and classify earthquake activity in California in Nevada. In just the last week, some 410 earthquakes have been recorded statewide including a 1.5 magnitude quake in Valencia just last week.

His latest video predicting a quake in Santa Clarita isn’t getting much attention, and I hesitate posting this at all, but it’s a slow news day for me here and you never know how these things might take off. I guess you could use this time to run through your own earthquake plan and think about a kit, if you don’t have one already.

So there you have it!

The amount of emails and posts generated by the back ‘n forth between me and Dave Bossert seems to indicate you folks are having fun with our latest spat. But it’s not the first time we’ve skewered Bossert here on SCVTalk, nor the most famous. Matter of fact, a “news article” I wrote over a year ago about some controversial Dave Bossert comments even got mentioned in the Daily News. Dig in and have fun!

Read the rest of this entry »

A collective gasp must have emanated from City Hall Monday as civic leaders eagerly paged through the latest CNN/Money Best Cities list only to find that Santa Clarita was not in the running this year.

The list, compiled each year by CNN and Money Magazine, purports to be an authority on which cities are the best to raise a family in, to be single in, or the best cities for commuters.

Last year, Santa Clarita was named the top city in California. At nearly every public event or city council meeting, City leaders mention this fact, usually placing the adjectives “amazing” or “astounding” or “incredible” in front of it. It’s even trumpeted on the City’s website as of this morning.

Now they will have to modify it; Santa Clarita was only best in 2007.
In 2008, we didn’t even get an honorable mention and lost out in California to Roseville, Irvine, Sunnyvale, and Fountain Valley.

Indeed, not only did Santa Clarita not place in California, but we didn’t even make the top 100 list nationally.

The top cities to live in according to this esteemed analysis are Plymouth, Minnesota, Ft. Collins Colorado, Naperville Illinois, Irvine California (SHOCK!), Franklin Township New Jersey, Norman Oklahoma, Columbia Maryland, Overland Park Kansas, and Fishers Indiana.

Yeah, double check that list. We lost out to six cities located in the so-called Flyover states.

How could this be?

Well, I consider the list to be quite silly in the first place, and no one would buy a Money Magazine issue with the same cities as last year, so it’s possible that the editors don’t actually think Santa Clarita is worse than Irvine, they just needed fresh copy for 2008.

Besides, some of the statistics used in the report seem to be suspect anyway. Just check out Santa Clarita’s page.

Who knew, for instance, that Santa Clarita had an astounding 44 movie theaters within a 15 mile range? And here you thought that the only movie options were the two crowded Edwards theaters that show kid-friendly flicks!

Or how about the weather stats? Money Mag says our high in July is 85 degrees, but I’ve got several wilted and burned plants on my balcony begging to differ.

As for our vaunted school system in Santa Clarita, Money says we don’t have much to be proud of nationally: in math, for instance, the SCV’s best and brightest scored 13.7% below the national average. Aye caramba!

Many of us are unhealthy and single too. Some 10% of us are divorced and 12.8% of us have diabetes, but despair not! We’ve got plenty of restaurants (3,530), scores of libraries (35), and 165 bars to drown our sorrows in.

So you see what I’m getting at? Like the Uniform Crime Index, this list is largely meaningless. Even when Money compares apples with apples (median housing price, for instance), they can’t measure unquantifiable things like the entertainment value one gets from City Council meetings. Nor does the list capture excitement of the Annual Fire Season or the scores of hokey charity galas that we all attend.

So rest easy Santa Clarita. We’re still a great place to live. Money Magazine can go pound sand.

Today’s Signal Opinion page featured several excellent opinion pieces on the hot topics of growth, density, sprawl and even -dare I say it- “small-town cronyism.” For local news geeks like me, it’s an opinion page I’ll save, or perhaps even frame. Read the rest of this entry »

The husband of Democrat Jacquese Conaway, the Barstow Democrat who’s running for Buck McKeon’s seat this fall, has written a letter to the editor of the Victorville Daily Press, bemoaning the potential Cemex land swap deal McKeon engineered earlier this year.

The letter, posted online and published today, was sent by one “Bob Conaway” of Barstow. Although it’s possible there’s two “Bob Conaways” in Barstow, I don’t find it likely. Bob Conaway once ran for Congress against McKeon and lists his wife as Jacquese, the current candidate.

Back to the letter: Conaway says the City of Victorville ought to reconsider its recent resolution in support of McKeon’s HR 5887, the same resolution the City of Santa Clarita is urging its residents to support:

 I urge the City of Victorville to withdraw its resolution in support of HR (House Resolution) 5887 and for citizens to write Congressman Buck McKeon and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to withdraw their support for HR 5887, a land swap deal.

Conaway says the resolution amounts to a raw deal for Victorville, which he claims already suffers from excess diesel emissions, chromium problems at a PG&E facility, and nitrate problems. He notes that the CEMEX facility in Santa Clarita would have been only “400 acres,” while under the terms of McKeon’s bill, CEMEX will get 5,000 acres in Victorville, which he thinks would only add to health and pollution issues in the High Desert.

Why is it OK that we get a project that pollutes the air and water — and even more to the point, why is the Victorville City Council saying that increasing the risk of serious health problems for us is OK?

The people in the Barstow and Mojave Valley area stand a four times greater chance of contracting lung cancer from the diesel emissions from trains in the area, we still are still suffering from chromium problems from the PG&E facility (despite claims of remediation efforts underway), nitrate problems in our water, chromium in the air from concrete aggregate crushers in the Oro Grande to Helendale area, VOCs and PM-10s above the levels allowed by the EPA throughout the Mojave Valley, and now you want to add a polluting mining operation that will add to the toxic and noxious air quality?

He ends with some closing words about Buck McKeon and asks why the Victorville city council is so “hell bent” on pleaseing the “wealthy” people in Santa Clarita.

First thoughts from this political novice:

It appears to me that the Conaway campaign (again, assuming the Bob Conaway letter writer is the Jacquese’ husband) is trying to divide and conquer CA-25 by using the poisonous topic of a CEMEX Mega Mine (insert scary music here) to put Buck on on the defensive.

So if it works, how does Buck McKeon defend himself from what might be hordes of angry Victorville and High Desert residents who think he’s selling out their health/future/water/air quality for the rich jerks down in Santa Clarita?

I imagine the Conaway’s strategy is aimed at getting more High Desert residents to the polls in November to offset whatever advantage McKeon has in Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valleys, where residents strongly trend Republican.

It could be very effective, could it not? The narrative becomes that  Buck McKeon sold out Victorville and the High Desert for his old stomping ground in the SCV, but a vote for Jacquese Conaway could stop all that.

It’s not clear (or at least I’m not clear) on what CEMEX plans to do with the thousands of acres of land it would obtain under McKeon’s land-swap deal, which still has to pass Congress. But as we saw in Santa Clarita, the mere mention of an aggregate mining facility with all the fears and NIMBYism that imagery entails can be more than enough to get residents outraged.

For what it’s worth, this is the only criticism of the deal I’ve seen in the VV Daily Press, let alone anywhere else. Maybe that’s an indication that there’s no outrage up there in the desert over this deal and McKeon need not worry.

Link to letter

With gas prices just a quarter or so south of the once-unimaginable $5/gallon mark, I was wondering if our elected officials were feeling the same pinch at the gas pump that we are, so I checked out their official -and in some cases taxpayer-paid- rides to see what kind of mileage they get and how they roll.

First up is big bad Senator George Runner, the conservative Republican Senator from Lancaster who represents a slice of the SCV. When he’s not out encouraging voters to put children gang members behind bar for the rest of their lives or writing Op/Eds for the Signal denying global warming, Runner rolls around in a 2005 Chrysler 300M, an odd-looking American sedan that gets an estimated 16 miles per gallon city and 25 miles per gallon highway. 

You can see the 300M to the right, and you’re likely surprised as I was by how it looks. You see, the 300M is the predecessor to the much-celebrated 300C, the boxy, angular Chrysler that stormed on the market in 2005 and has been the star of many rap videos.

When new, the 300M cost $38,014, which was likely leased by the state for Senator Runner’s use.

FuelEconomy.gov  says it costs about $3,188 per year to fuel Runner’s ride, which equates to an annual energy impact score of some 18 barrels of light sweet crude oil (a barrel = 42 gallons). Runner’s carbon footprint, if he were ever to care about such a thing, is 9.6 tons, based on 15,000 miles of driving, though that doesn’t measure the hot air coming out of his mouth. His car also scores a “2″ on a sliding 1-10 scale for air pollution.

Runner told the Daily News in January that he just prefers a big car. “I live in a big district,” he said.

In contrast to Runner’s clumsy American land-yacht, Buck McKeon, our Congressman, drives something at least as sensible, but in my opinion, much more stylish.

The eight term congressman just finished a tour of the SCV and our district in which he outlined his energy plan, but what does the one time owner of a western wear store drive in an era of $4.50/gallon gas? If you guessed a beat-up rusty 1978 Dodge Ram with a gun rack and bull-horns on the front (as I did), you’d be wrong.

According to May’s LA Times, Buck cruises K Street and the Capitol building parking lot in a sophisticated and sexy 2006 Acura RL, a stylish Japanese-made four door sedan that gets 16 city/24 highway.The RL costs around $40,000 when new.

Like Runner’s car, the RL is no saint when it comes  gas mileage. McKeon probably gets about 330 miles per fill-up, which costs taxpayers about $74.55 at the pump to fill up (and that’s based on $4.27 gas). His carbon footprint is equal to Runner’s at 9.6, but the effecient Japanese sedan pollutes much less than its road-hogging American cousin: the RL gets a score of 6 out of 10 from the EPA and costs about $3,369 in gas every year. 

Buck’s been busy advocating increased drilling in America in places like ANWAR, and with good reason: his car uses 18  barrels of oil (7 domestic, 11 imported) every year.

Next up is the SCV’s own golden boy and the hope of moderate Santa Claritans everywhere: Cameron Smyth. Our 20 something City Councilman turned 30-something state Assemblyman tools around Sacto in a very utilitarian, eco-friendly and entirely sensible Honda Accord Hybrid.

The Accord Hybrid doesn’t score as well as its competitor the Prius, but Smyth gets about 28/city and 35/highway in the innovative Japanese car, which he leases from the state.

Smyth’s family-friendly sedan contributes about 6.8 tons of CO2 and uses about 12.7 barrels of oil (5 domestic, 7 foreign) every year while it burns through some $2,242 of taxpayer funds for fuel. Best of all, the Accord Hybrid scores an 8 out of 10 on the EPA’s pollution scale.

That covers our state and federal elected officials, but what about the City Council?

It’s not really fair to include them in this brief survey since they don’t get a real salary, but for what it’s worth, during the election Laurie Ender blogged about putting a huge “Vote for Laurie” sign on the back of her giant Infiniti sport-ute.

As for the other Council Members, I confess to being utterly clueless as to what they drive. I imagine Laurene Weste has a truck capable of towing horses. Marsha McClean I picture driving a big Buick. Frank Ferry is without a doubt a Chevy or Ford man, while Bob Kellar probably cruises around in a Crown Vic, just to remind him of his LAPD days.

Or do they all drive-share Valencia Acura cars?

The Los Angeles Police Department announced today that it had arrested 40 year old Special Ed assistant and football coach Kevin Thomas for “sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 18.” Thomas, the LAPD says, works at Birmingham High School, but was “recently hired as the varsity defensive coordinator at Canyon High School in Canyon Country.”

This goes beyond the previous “inappropriate conduct” claims that have bedeviled the Hart District in recent weeks; the LAPD claims Thomas sexually assaulted a girl, and they say he may have assaulted other victims.

But does he actually work at Canyon High? The District was quick to issue a denial although it had some odd caveats.

The District told KHTS that Thomas has expressed an interest in coaching at Canyon, but hasn’t “filed a formal application for employment and has not gone through the fingerprinting, application screening, interviews or other processes required for employment in the Hart District,” according to an official in Hart’s HR department.

That, in PR speak, is a non-denial denial. The statement gives the impression that he doesn’t work at Canyon because he hasn’t completed the formal application process. But they’re not explicitly denying that he has worked at Canyon.

The Signal later spoke with district spokeswoman Pat Willett who seemed even less certain about whether Thomas has been working with Canyon’s football program whether in an official capacity or not.

“If he were an employee, he would be put on administrative leave and would have no further contact with any students. Since he is not an employee, that goes double,” Willett told the paper.

Huh?!

If he was not an employee, what was he doing around students in the first place? Does that mean he was just some guy hanging around the Canyon High campus?

At the very least, it sounds like the District has been completely caught off guard by the LAPD’s claim. It seems they just don’t know the status of Thomas, which may not completely be their fault. Why?

Football teams in the SCV function almost like autonomous athletic teams. They routinely “hire” former students to help coach and they’re open to volunteers. To get into a program, you really have to know someone on the official coaching/teaching staff. It’s unclear how much control the district has over that process at the five different high schools, all of which take football very seriously.

In any event, I’m sure the Canyon High principal will be the next one to issue a statement. He ought to at least, the LA Times says he hasn’t returned their call.

The LAPD will release more information at a press conference at 5pm today.

Many people are talking about LandSource’s bankruptcy and its potential effects on Newhall Land, and therefore, Newhall Ranch and the rest of Santa Clarita, much of which the storied company built in the 1960s until today. And indeed, some of that talk is coming from company officials, but only one new detail is emerging: Marlee Lauffer runs a tight ship. Read the rest of this entry »

 Well it finally happened!  My family and I visited the Farmers’ market at COC last weekend - I didn’t know what to expect. Read the rest of this entry »