ONLINE EDITION!
PRINT
DIGITAL
I ♥ SCV
I Heart SCV
Ties that Bind
December, 2010 - Issue #74
Those of us who live in the 'burbs are rarely shown in our best light. Suburbanites on TV dramas or real-housewife-esque reality shows are usually portrayed as conformity-loving, materialistic, petty and superficial - as if the rest of humanity wasn't. But it's the conformity that people fixate on. Neighborhoods are a collection of the same houses filled with the same sorts of people who have the same interests and run in the same crowds.

With all of this sameness, you would imagine that we'd get along just fine. Yet many people end up isolated, not knowing that they lived next to a pot farmer until after the drug bust because they never once went over to meet the neighbors. And for being so much the same, we spend an awful lot of time disagreeing about everything from politics to paint colors. Despite the caricature of homogenous suburbs, our common bonds are fewer than we think.

"The group SAVE OUR LIBRARY -
known by the unfortunate and pessimistic acronym SOL -
has filed suit against the city."

Group Suit

One way that differences come out is in how people educate their children, whether by enrolling them in public schools, private academies, magnet schools, home schools, or just letting the Internet teach their kids the ways of the world. Libraries, though, unite these different groups, and the case of Santa Clarita's libraries has united people in an extraordinary way.

As you may recall, the city council voted to have a private company, LSSI, provide services at our public libraries. This means that access to LA County's library resources will be restricted unless you visit a county branch like the ones that will remain in Castaic and Acton. The backlash has only intensified in recent months. The group Save Our Library - known by the unfortunate and pessimistic acronym SOL - has filed suit against the city. They will argue that a private company cannot be allowed access to our private library records. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County has retaliated by halting their renovations of the Canyon Country Library. The LA County Library System won't devote more resources to a library that they will soon be forced to leave. The city council has responded to a group galvanized in opposition to the library takeover by trying to form a group of its own, the Citizens Public Library Advisory Committee. Good luck with that.

Hungry Hordes
Claritans like few things better than eating and driving, doing both more often than they ought. Little wonder, then, that an event combining victuals and vehicles would be an amazing success. The Awesometown Gourmet Food Truck Festival held this fall lured some 8,000 people with the promise of 22 food trucks. That's 300- to 400-percent more than were expected. The marketplace parking lot seethed as these masses of Claritans wandered about, hungry for ethnic specialty foods or more adventurous versions of comfort food classics. There were gourmet fries and slightly over-priced pastries and several takes on Korean food. But mostly, there were people.

Santa Clarita hasn't always been so keen on food served from a wheeled platform. Human-powered street carts were banned by a city ordinance, and there has been talk of the need for greater oversight for food trucks to ensure that they meet the same food safety standards as more firmly-grounded restaurants. The fact that this event turned into such a rousing success might seem a heartening example of how we're united by more than living in homes that look the same. Indeed, it seems we all like food. Though we can't only rarely get 8,000 people to turn out for any one sporting championship or cultural activity or volunteer event, bring out the food and the crowds will come.

Year in Review
The approach of the new year and Santa Clarita's December birthday (Happy 23rd!) remind us to look back on what's transpired over the past 11 months. Apart from living in the same place, it's the news we share and the history we experience that bind us together.

There were trends. Newhall Land's "Awesometown" campaign filled our radio stations and bus stop posters and Internet browsers with awesomeness - or the promise thereof. Massage establishments proliferated, some of them less reputable than others. There were conflicts. Both a spring city council election and a fall water board election brought out the bully in Frank Ferry. We're still fighting Ventura agricultural interests over spending hundreds of millions of dollars to take chloride out of our water, and the battle for library control rages on. There were tragedies. Matilde Garnica was killed in the horrible Fourth of July accident. We've kept tabs on the trial of Josh Pipho's accused murderer, and sadly witnessed a stabbing at Hart High and a fatal plane crash in Agua Dulce. There were victories. Beautiful Elsemere Canyon was preserved forever as open space. The Cross Valley Connector was finished with a bridge that will honor those who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And somehow, hopefully, we've come to heart our home and neighbors more after experiencing it all.

This column is intended as satire and a (sometimes successful) attempt at humor. Suggestions, catty comments and veiled threats intended for the author can be e-mailed to iheartscv@insidescv.com.
EMAIL SIGNUP
- What is the sum of 7 + 8?
This is a required value
to protect against spam
community events
08
01
16
23
04
13