Chapter 18 - Hawaii

Hawaii and Santa Clarita are two totally different climatic locations which both thrive on tourism and entertainment industries. Lots of movies are filmed at both locations, but just with different atmospheres. In Santa Clarita, houses, parks, schools, and mountain sides across the city on a daily basis. A lot of the land in Santa Clarita is owned by Newhall Land Development. The San Andreas Fault runs through Placerita Canyon near Sierra Highway on the east side of the valley next to the 14 freeway. Hawaii is filled with humid air in the summer and rainy days in the winter. Santa Clarita is the total opposite, but still attracts people year round for each entertainment purpose available.

Chapter 16 - The North Pacific Coast

The Santa Clarita Valley is not very similar to the North Pacific Coast. It is about 40 miles inland east from the Pacific Ocean. There is tons of plush greenery surrounding housing tracts, local parks and schools. A lot of the population started in the south of Newhall and east in Canyon Country then migrated west which is now Valencia and Stevenson Ranch. Fishing can take place in Castaic Lake in the northern part of the valley year round.

Chapter 15 - California

Santa Clarita has plenty of entertainment options like an upscale mall, golf courses, Castaic Lake and Six Flags Magic Mountain. They also thrive off the tourism industry especially from Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor by attracting people who are coming through the grapevine towards Los Angeles. The climate of Santa Clarita is very dry in Summer and very wet in Winter. Unfortunately, in the hot months fire season is extremely high and dangerous. The ethnic diversity is mainly Hispanic and Caucasian throughout the valley. I believe the use of land in the Santa Clarita Valley is way overpopulated with residential properties.

BlogThis!

Chapter 14 - The Southwest Border Area: Tricultural Development

The southwest part of the valley is Stevenson Ranch, Old Orchard and parts of Newhall which are surrounded by the Santa Susana Mountains.

The Santa Clarita Valley is in the middle of the Santa Clara River that runs through Southern California.

The valley was part of the 48,612 acre Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant.

Source - Wikipedia - Santa Clarita Valley

Chapter 13 - The Empty Interior

The Empty Interior part of Santa Clarita is filled with wildlife, some mining, and a nearby Lake Castaic in the north. Tons of desert wildlife like mountain lions, snakes, fox, coyotes, bobcats and rodents fill the valley with interesting encounters no matter where your house is located. The Castaic Lake is run by the Los Angeles Department and Recreation. It acts as a reservoir for many local communities in the area, in addition to providing great water sports and fishing activities for all ages.

Chapter 12 - The Great Plains and Prairies

The Santa Clarita Valley is not prone to any extreme weather like tornadoes found on the Great Plains. The harshest weather has been specs of snow about three times in the past ten years. The weather is quite similar to the San Fernando Valley just a few degrees hotter and colder during the extreme seasons. To compare and contrast the future of the Great Plains and Santa Clarita other resources are steadily being developed amongst new housing communities in the valley. Solar panels are the newest trend to conserve energy and to get installed on your house to help conserve energy costs.

Chapter 11 - The Agricultural Core

Santa Clarita is a big business oriented city with a variety of manufacturing plants and industrial parks located on the northern part of the city. I think the valley is booming to its capacity very quickly with the non-existent space they are trying to build on.

Here is some information from the California Employment Department that portrays the biggest companies in the valley.

Santa Clarita maintains one of the lowest unemployment rates in Los Angeles County. The City’s unemployment rate was 4.9% in August 2008 compared to 8.2% for Los Angeles County and 7.6% for the State of California.




LARGEST EMPLOYERS

COMPANY TYPE OF BUSINESS # OF EMPLOYEES
Six Flags Magic Mountain Theme Park 3,689
William S. Hart Union School District Public High & Junior High School District 2,455
Princess Cruises Vacation Cruise line Services 2,100
Saugus Union School District Public Elementary School District 2,010
U.S. Postal Service US Postal Service 1,790
College of the Canyons Community College 1,678
Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital Healthcare Services 1,212
H. R. Textron Aerospace Manufacturer 845
Newhall School District Public Elementary School District 836
The Master's College Christian Liberal Arts College 755
Specialty Laboratories Medical Research & Development 725
City of Santa Clarita Government Agency 695
Arvato Services Business Services 586
California Institute of the Arts Private Art School 500
Aerospace Dynamics Aerospace Structural Components 420
Fanfare Media Works International Printing & Publishing 407

Source: California Employment Development Department, June 2007


The closest agricultural zones are in Agua Dulce for some spread out farmland property, or in the Ventura Country West towards Fillmore.

Chapter 10 - The Southern Coastlands: On the Subtropical Margin

In subtropical coastlands around the globe citrus, sugar, rice and a handful of vegetables are easily grown. but not in Santa Clarita.  Unfortunately, the Santa Clarita Valley is a desert and barely has any extra land for farming.  The closest signs of farming are if you head west towards the beach you will pass by a small town for farming called Fillmore where they have orange and lemon groves along with private owned farms.

Santa Clarita Video

Just a quick video about my hometown.

Chapter 9 - The Changing South

In general, the City's population is not as diverse as the County's population.  More than three-fourths or 76% of Santa Clarita's population describes itself as White.  (taken from the city of Santa Clarita Website)



Growing up in a community with lots of diverse people always causes trouble.  I always tried to stay away from the racism that went on, but wherever you go it is always there.  I remember there was a big incident back in high-school with one of the principals that was accused of being racist that started this whole unnecessary argument.  I think that in the past five years of not living in Santa Clarita the racism problem has gotten better.

Chapter 8 - Appalachia and the Ozarks

According to the book, the Appalachia and the Ozark is separated by over 300 miles with similar topography and settlement history.  Within Santa Clarita now towards the north there are tons of Caucasian people and in the south there is a huge percentage of Hispanics.
                           

In the small town of Valencia there is a lot more room for expansion to keep growing new families with tons of new housing tracts being built every couple of years.  The east side towards Canyon Country doesn't have too much extra space to keep building so they pretty much have to live off what businesses are already there to keep their community up and running.



For the most part the Santa Clarita tends to itself when it comes to bringing in revenue for the community.  Occasionally there will be town fairs, marathons, golf tournaments and contests and of course Magic Mountain that will attract visitors from other cities to bring more of a lively atmosphere to the valley.  



Sources and Pictures:

- http://www.infocusmagazine.org/6.2/bsoc_hispanics_in_america.html

Chapter 7 - The Bypassed East

Weather - When it comes to weather relating it to the Bypassed East, Santa Clarita is nothing like that where the seasonal months are too extreme.  The Santa Clarita Valley can get hot, but minus the humidity and it can also get cold, but minus the snow.

                              

Farming - The only major farming that takes place near the SCV is in Fillmore off the 126 Freeway or a little north towards Lombardi Ranch when their family owned pumpkin patch opens up to the public.  Also, plenty of residents have small gardens nestled away on their land so animals don't destroy them.

Lakes and Transportation Routes - Castaic Lake is the main lake in the valley to go fishing at which I have done multiple times.  Santa Clarita is quite similar to the Bypassed East where it is "near major transportation routes, but not on them. (pg. 130)"  The 126 and 5 Interstates are two great ways to travel north up the state with a great view of the beaches or up through the grapevine of farmlands.  

                                                                                         

                               

Sources for Information and Pictures:

- http://www.castaiclake.com/lowerlake.html

- http://micechat.com/forums/micechat-main-lounge/81749-visit-lombardi-ranch-pumpkin-patch-look-back-past.html 

Chapter 5 - The North American Manufacturing Core

Even though Santa Clarita is a small town and nothing comparable to the North American Manufacturing Core, it still tries to compete by having an enormous industrial park conveniently located on the east side of the valley next to Interstate 5. Back in the early 1900's around Placerita Canyon near the city of Newhall, gold was being mined in the local rivers and then traded between the people who once settled there.  The industrial park has over 706 companies ranging from machine shops for airplanes to little hole-in-the-wall sandwich shops.  When I was in high-school one of my first jobs was working at a telephone company on Avenue Stanford on the lower south side of the park at a family friend's business.  
                               
                                                                            Industrial Park




Sources:

- http://www.santa-clarita.com

Chapter 4 - Megalopolis

Santa Clarita is the fourth largest city in Los Angeles County with a population of 176,971 in January 2011.  It is the 24th largest city in the State of California.  In Los Angeles County, Los Angeles with
a population of 3.8 million, Long Beach with less than 464,000, and Glendale with slightly over 192,000 were larger than Santa Clarita.  Overall, Santa Clarita plays an important role in the County based on its size.  Santa Clarita's population grew by 17.5% from 2000 to 2010 and was almost twice the growth experience in all of Los Angeles County. Only the communities of Lancaster and Palmdale in the Antelope Valley grew faster than Santa Clarita. 




Public Options Provided to the Community

1.  Transit Buses
        - Santa Clarita Transit buses people all around the valley and also has ones that go down to the  
          valley and north towards Santa Barbara

2.  Henry Mayo Hospital
        - Located in the northwest part of Newhall (which I unfortunately have visited multiple times)

3.  Valencia Town Center Mall/Car Dealerships
        - Over 100 stores and restaurants along with an IMAX Movie Theatre

4.  Six Flags Magic Mountain Amusement Park
        - My sister's first job
        - Created tons of new jobs and visitors

5.  Two Bowling Alleys
        - Valencia Lanes in Newhall
        - Santa Clarita Lanes in Canyon Country (where I bowled in a league for about eight years)

6.  Police and Fire Stations
        - Police station located in the center near the car dealerships
        - Ten fire stations scattered throughout the valley
        - Public Library inside

7.  Three Local Freeways (I use these freeways to commute up there at least once a week)
        - The 5 which extends from Southern California up through Northern California
        - The 126 travels west through Fillmore towards Ventura and quickly connects to the 101 north
        - The 14 is on the east side of the valley which starts at the 5 near Balboa and extends up through
           Palmdale and Lancaster

8.  Parks and Recreation Areas
        - The major Rec Center is in Canyon Country where most of the city sports teams play except
           for softball teams which play at Central Park in Saugus (also has a skatepark)
        - Countless parks and rec centers scattered throughout almost every housing tract in the valley
        - Most equipped with pool and basketball courts
        - The majority of them have jungle gyms
        - 4 golf courses within the valley
9.  Paseos
        - Pathways leading over 30 miles around town (all I used when riding my bike around town)


Sources:

- My Knowledge and Experiences
- http://www.santa-clarita.com

Chapter 3 - Foundations of Human Activity

Tataviam Indians

The four major towns of the Santa Clarita Valley Valencia, Saugus, Newhall and Canyon Country were quite distinct and blended together with much time and planning.  First evidence of human activity around the Santa Clarita area was from the Tataviam (people facing the sun) who created a homeland in the east part of the valley known as Canyon Country.  The Tongva Kitanemuk, and Serrano people also called this area a homeland more than five hundred years ago.  More than two decades later after the Mexican Independence, the people focused on the joining of Castaic Creek and the Santa Clara River.  When the collapse of the St. Francis Dam happened in 1928 settlements and people were washed away along the Santa Clara River.  About 30 years later in the 1960's the Newhall Land company's suburban developments transformed Canyon Country and surrounding towns into a strict residential and cultural city. 

                               

                                                                     Newhall Land

                                                        

                                                                     Henry Newhall

Newhall is the southernmost and oldest part of Santa Clarita.  Before the combining of Valencia, Saugus, Newhall and Canyon Country in 1987, it was an independent, but unincorporated town.   It was known as the first permanent Anglo settlement in the valley.  The city of Newhall was named after a great businessman Henry Newhall, who made great fortune during the Gold Rush in California and later opened up the H.M. Newhall & Company.

                                      

                                                                     Saugus Cafe

Saugus started development after Newhall, before Valencia, and got its name from Saugus, Massachusetts which was the hometown of Henry Newhall.  The most famous landmark in Saugus is the Saugus Cafe just east of the Sherriff's Station on Bouquet Canyon Road.

                                                        The Well Known Valencia Sign

Valencia is the part of Santa Clarita where I was raised for about 14 years of my life and the place I call home.  It was first planned in the 1960's by the Newhall Land and Farming Company.  Development began in the late 1960's and still continues present till this day.  It is held together by a small knit community of apartment buildings, schools, industrial parks, single-family homes and shopping centers along about a dozen of boulevards running through the city. 

 

A Few Fun Facts About the First Inhabitants:

They came sweeping across the Great Plains to the Santa

Clarita Valley sometime around 450 A.D., a band of Shoshone

Indians called the Tataviam. Evidence of the first inhabitants

of the Santa Clarita Valley dates back about 13,000 years, but

little is known about them. Just over 1500 years ago, these

previous inhabitants of the Valley were displaced by a people

who migrated westward from the Great Plains. For many

years modern historians called them the “Alliklik,” but this

turned out to be a derogatory name given to them by their

neighbors to the west, the Chumash. More recently they have

been known as the Tataviam or “people of the sunny slopes”,

so named by the Kitanemuk Indians of the Antelope Valley, due

to their habit of building villages on southern facing slopes of

mountains to maximize sun exposure.



Sources: 

- http://www.scvhistory.com/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_Country,_Santa_Clarita,_California
- http://www.newhallfoundation.org/aboutHMN.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tataviam
- http://scvhs.org/news/dispatch34-4.pdf

Chapter 2 - Geographic Patterns of the Physical Environment

Mountains:
Santa Clarita is squeezed in the middle of two mountain ranges, the Santa Susana to the west and the San Gabriel to the east. It looks like it is encased in moutains from all four directions when standing near the Valencia Town Center mall.  On the Southeast side of Santa Clarita next to the 14 Freeway is the Placerita Canyon State Park accompanied by a its small mountain range dividing it from the start of the San Fernando Valley.  All throughout the valley there are tons of small hills nestled among communities and one in particular that later obtained the small town name "Hamburger Hill" at the top of Lyons Avenue in Newhall, due to all of the fast-food restaurants in close vicinity.  Plenty of streets among the valley have gotten their names from small hills and canyons in Saugus like Copperhill and Haskell, which lead north through San Francisquito Canyon towards Lancaster. 


                                                     Stevenson Ranch and the 5 Freeway
                                                                  SCV overview


Weather:
The weather in the Santa Clarita Valley is much similar to that of the San Fernando Valley, but with a few drastic changes in temperature in the summer and winter months.  During the summer months temperatures can range from 85-105+ degrees.  In the winter months it can drop to 30 degrees and in some place even lower creating snow, a rare view to residents of Santa Clarita.  The overall weather is very easy for living especially with someone moving from the east coast. 

The last legit snowfall in Valencia in January 2007

http://www.thegreengirls.com

Vegetation: 
There is definitely greenery on the surrounding mountains, if fires don't get to them first.  Within Santa Clarita there isn't much vegetation because it is covered with businesses and housing tracts, but incorporated within the communities there are plenty of lush trees and greenery to look at.  To keep the valley plush, the city has a very extensive upsacle landscaping department which does a very good job at maintaining gorgeous views for all their residents.  Amongst the moutains there are tons of hiking trails with lavish trees to hike your way through for days. 

                                                     Weldon Canyon near the Newhall Pass
                                                                 http://www.meetup.com

Chapter 1 - Regions and Themes

                                                              The Still Expanding City
Even though there is only one police station to accomodate more than 170,000 people the city of Santa Clarita mainly sticks to a safe living theme incorporated in the valley which welcomes more newcombers each and every year.  There are over 20 housing developments to choose from spread across the whole valley based on how much you are looking to spend.  Referring to our book on page six, the regions within Santa Clarita in my opinion are quite easy to distinguish just by looking at the houses getting older and the types of people who live in the area of each town particularly between Valencia to Saugus and Valencia to Canyon Country.  More than five popular churches and two temples host thousands of residents with different beliefs throughout the community of Catholics, Christians and Jews.  Just North of Stevenson Ranch lies one of the biggest amusement parks in California Six Flags Magic Mountain.  In past years it brought tons of tourists to Santa Clarita when traveling north and south on Interstate 5.

                                                              

Santa Clarita on Google Maps Cropped in Paint Credit to Google

Sources:

- http://www.santa-clarita.com/index.aspx?page=572

- My Own Knowledge