Santa Clarita 34th Safest City

I guess for the most part I feel safe in Santa Clarita.  There have been times when I don’t.  For whatever reason when I’m around a bunch of teenage boys that are say…sitting in their cars at gas stations, at the skate park, sometimes in the mall parking lot…I don’t really feel safe.  I don’t feel safe when I’m in any mall in Canyon Country.  No offense to anyone, just my opinion.  I live in a new neighborhood that has the perception of being safe and the week we moved in my husband’s truck was broken into.  A few months ago my son left the garage door open over night and someone stole a few things including my husbands mountain bike (4k-ouch). 

I guess the perception is safe but perhaps the statistics are slightly incorrect.  For example, we never reported the above thefts to the police.  When we called for the auto break in, we had to wait at home for 2 hours for the sheriff to show up.  When he did, he had another call that was more important so we were never able to file the report because he had to leave.  As far as the mountain bike, I guess we just never thought we’d have a chance of getting it back, so just called it a loss.  I assume there are many people in Santa Clarita that have had similar experiences.

A friend of mine told me that there are a lot of crack heads out here that go around opening car doors or home doors to see what they can take quickly.  If the door is unlocked, they’ll grab something.  In both cases for us, that was the case.  My husband had left the bed of his truck unlocked as well.

I do sleep with the alarm on and would never dream of leaving anything out in my front yard over night.

Cemex Update

So this email was forwarded to me today.  I don’t really want my blog to be a platform for environmental issues one way or another, but I agree that the Cemex mine is a pretty big issue in Santa Clarita, so I feel compelled to post it.

URGENT REQUEST - Send an E-mail to the Governor, TODAY!!
 
Join the Citizens’ Coalition in opposition of the CEMEX mega mine at http://www.stopcemexmegamine.com/ 
 
As you know, fighting the siting of a 69-million ton mega mine in Soledad Canyon is one of the City’s biggest projects and highest priorities right now and we need your help!
 
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to visit Mexico on a trade mission immediately following the November 7th election, and it has come to our attention that his office was approached by CEMEX to visit its corporate offices during this trip.  As you may know, CEMEX is headquartered in Monterey, Mexico.
I would like to encourage you to contact the Governor immediately and let him know that his constituents do not approve of him meeting with a company that threatens to endanger our public health, our environmental resources and our very quality of life by operating a mega-mine in our community.
To have an impact, we need as many people as possible to send an email to his office. It’s simple and can be effective if we organize our collective voices!
For your convenience, a sample e-mail has been provided that you can send the Governor.  Simply copy the message below, tailor it as you see fit, and paste it in the message box on the Governor’s e-mail webpage. 
 
Dear Governor,
 
I strongly urge you to NOT visit CEMEX during your upcoming Mexico trade mission!  As a resident of Santa Clarita, ranked among the “Best Places to Live in 2006” by CNN/Money Magazine, please demonstrate your commitment to protecting the health of California families and our environment and cancel any planned visit to CEMEX offices or headquarters. 
 
As you may know, CEMEX has proposed a 69-million ton sand and gravel mega-mine and concrete batch plant in Soledad Canyon, just one short mile from our wonderful city. As residents, we are extremely concerned  about  the health and environmental dangers, potential property devaluation and massive drop in our quality of life if this mine goes forward as proposed.
 
The proposed CEMEX mega-mine will:
•    Remove enough sand, rock and gravel to fill the Rose Bowl 127 times throughout the 20 years  of   mining. 
•       Add up to 1,164 big truck trips, every day to Los Angeles’ already congested freeways;
•        Put 18 wheelers and other trucks onto local freeways on average of every two minutes, 24 hours a day; and
•        Cause significant amounts of dust and emissions to be released into the air, which will negatively impact those with asthma and other breathing issues, especially children and seniors. 
 
A massive Citizen’s Coalition of nearly 8,000 residents, educators, civic leaders, public health advocates, local elected officials and business leaders from northern Los Angeles County has been mobilized to oppose the proposed CEMEX mega-mine. Given the intensity of the opposition to this proposal by the residents of our community, we believe that a visit by you to a CEMEX facility would send a negative message that would reverberate through our community and broader Los Angeles County. 
 
This fight is a number #1 priority for our community and the City of Santa Clarita…we will continue to voice our opposition to the proposed mine and seek support from our elected officials.
 
Your visit to CEMEX sends the wrong message to Southern California families and businesses. Please do not visit CEMEX on your trip, and stand with us as we fight to maintain our quality of life.  Thank you.
 
Many thanks,
Ken

Flamingo Flocking

What the flock?

Pink flamingos all over my yard? 

So there’s a fun fundraising opportunity out here in the SCV.  Basically, the way this works is your group gets together and makes up a flocking list of people that you think would want to contribute cash to your organization without necessarily buying anything.  If you think this is something you’d be interested in, Flamingo Flocking is where you need to start.

Each night a new victim/donor gets flocked.  Flocked with pink flamingos all over their yard that is.  When they wake up to find the flamingos, there is a note with instructions as to how much to pay to have the flamingos removed.  Once the fee is paid, the flamingos are gone and on to a new home.  This usually happens within 24 hours.

Like I said, you have to find people that you know will appreciate the humor and will want to contribute to your cause.

I did hear that the company that makes pink flamingos is closing their doors because of the high costs involved in making these old birds.  I am sure that if this happens, these flamingos will have a pretty high value since they will in a sense be extinct.

Anyway, it sounds like fun and the jokes could go on about it forever.

Have fun…get flocked.  Can you flock yourself?  Look…it’s a group of mother flockers! Hehe!

High Speed Chase Through Santa Clarita

I was watching the news and there is some loon on a motorcycle that came in from the Grapevine traveling about 120 miles per hour through Santa Clarita and on to the 14 freeway.  He got off at Sierra Hwy and began traveling north toward Agua Dulce.

Imagine going 120 on a motorcycle through some of these streets?  One pot hole and ouch!

Copperhill Accident on Construction Alley

Well, it finally happened.  Driving west on Copperhill this afternoon, there was an accident that had just happened.  There were three cars and a construction vehicle pulled over to the side.  By the time I saw it, there was an ambulance and a couple fire trucks there.  There was a woman and a girl sitting on the side of the road.  I also saw someone lying in the ambulance.  Hopefully, everyone was okay.

Just this morning I almost hit a construction vehicle that was making an illegal u-turn on Tesoro del Valle.  I was coming down the hill making a right hand turn and the truck was making a u-turn.  Close call for an early morning.  Some of the construction workers have become a bit too comfortable with their surroundings and feel as if they can disobey the rules. 

I think the same goes for local residents driving up and down that road everyday.  You just become so used to it that you let your guard down.  It’s taken too long to fix the street. 

I did notice that they finally poured the asphalt today.  I guess I can only hope that by next week, we might have 4 lanes. 

Local Celebrity Appears on Dancing With the Stars

Santa Clarita’s own Ashley Tisdale is not new to the big screen, but she is fairly new to her celebrity status.  Tonight on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars Ashley made an appearance to support her High School Musical friend Monique Coleman by spending an afternoon shopping and putting on make up.

Ashley is a graduate from Valencia High School and returned there last week to support her alma madder during the home coming football game.  It was quite a big deal for many students to see her and get a chance to meet her and talk to her.  She has many fans here in the SCV.

You can also find this young star on Disney’s The Suite Life With Zack and Cody.

Newhall Pass Accident

According to the news this morning there was an accident on Sierra Highway at San Fernando that killed two people and seriously injured two.

From what I could gather, a vehicle was speeding on Sierra Highway traveling northbound and crossed over the center divider slamming into three other cars.

There is not alot of information on this yet.  Here is the article I found from KABC.

The names of the passengers have not been released yet.