The City Where Urbanism Meets Suburbia

[@mitchcox8577]

When I was studying at CalArts we used to get drunk and wander around Valencia on the "paseos", their network of off-street walking paths connecting all the parks and housing tracts together. I always thought it was cool that you could walk miles and miles without ever sharing space with cars. The only problem was that there wasn't anything fun or interesting to walk to...

[@jc3drums916]

I remember it used to be near-impossible to find a place to live near CalArts, as a student. Students who didn't live on-campus lived in Newhall, Canyon Country, Val Verde, etc. Not having a car made life difficult - it took ~45 minutes to walk form Newhall to CalArts.

[@micosstar]

came from youtube recommend (watches urbanist channels like CityNerd), new sub! - mico

[@fourth_place]

much appreciated! :) citynerd is one of my faves too!

[@Cyrus992]

I stayed at my cousins place across the Valencia Town Center last November. It was quite pedestrian friendly but the arterial routes McBean and Magic Mountain Pkwy made it worse. I visited Newhall for the first time even though I was raised in SoCal entirely. Quite impressed. The area should have been planned a lot like Burbank, Glendale or Pasadena which have plenty of detached homes. There were plans to make route 126 into a freeway. That’s better than stroads. CA regulations such as CEQA make spread out development harder. Hence why Tejon Ranch hasn’t started nearby. It’s HOW you spread out that matters. We both were raised in Rancho Cucamonga which has many of the problems Santa Clarita has. I was 15 in 2007 when realized these issues.

[@harysuper]

I always loved visiting this city even before I met my current girlfriend there in Santa Clarita. I would stop there on the road while visiting my long distance ex at the time who lived up in central cal. Great transit options despite the excessive sprawl in SCV. There are some neighborhoods and condo complexes close to the Santa Clarita and Via Princessa stations that are somewhat walkable, there is a paved bike and ped path nearby the two stations. I love the charm of newhall though! I checked out the new vista canyon station. I am hopeful they develop more things there, it is very close to Jake's way which is a very unsafe part to walk through at night. It's funny you showed my station at 2:45 in Norwalk CA on the orange county line. The Metrolink and great transit options in SCV have made the distance in my current relationship super convenient. We both love riding the train too!

[@CrazyDash9]

Pretty decent video overall. I grew up in Valencia for most of my life but never really thought about the overall design of the city. Now of course I have bias for Santa Clarita as I have made many amazing memories here. But as I’ve gotten more interested in city planning and transit planning, I’ve realized how poorly planned it was. Now I say “was” because I feel like Santa Clarita is making a turn for the better. Besides the new development next to Six Flags Magic Mountain, the city is finally starting to turn away from suburban sprawled single family homes. I feel like you kinda downplayed what they’re doing in Vista Canyon. There are tons of new apartments all within walking distance of the new Metrolink station which is a huge deal. Metrolink also just started running hourly train service to Via Princessa and soon Vista Canyon, making Metrolink a very viable option to travel into LA. The new development showed in the video that will go next to the apartments will also be a huge deal as it will be heavily mixed-use. The Valencia Mall is also shutting down and there are plans to convert the land into housing and office space (hopefully mixed use and an attractive place to go to). There are also plans for a development that would go in the hills next to the Santa Clarita Metrolink station, finally making it more than a park and ride station. All of these developments are proof Santa Clarita is trying to change for the better and I’m all in for it. However there is one thing I don’t agree with in this video. I’m sorry but Santa Clarita’s local bus system sucks. It’s super infrequent and is super inaccessible because of Santa Clarita’s current suburban sprawl. The core of the bus’ issues though is their regional transportation center by the mall. It could not be in a worse location. Now that the mall is shutting down, there is literally nothing around there other than a doctor’s office, a strip mall, and the developments that are next to the mall. My problem with this is that you have this bus terminal taking you to nowhere, and this is where all bus lines go. Not to more important locations like the 4 Metrolink stations. From my apartment, it is a 45 minute bus ride in comparison to an 8 minute car ride. That is completely inexcusable, and it’s all because I have to take one line to the regional transportation center, and then another line to get me to a Metrolink station. At that point, I’d much rather drive to the stations. This wouldn’t be an issue if the system had more lines. The bus system badly needs more direct lines to Santa Clarita and Newhall Stations. They also badly need to up frequencies on the lines. Once an hour is not good for a bus line. The system really needs a major overhaul as more high density developments come about in the city to make it accessible and attractive to use. But right now it is not. I’d argue it’s worse than Santa Barbara and Ventura’s bus systems. Sorry for completely ranting about only a single point in this video but it’s something that isn’t talked about enough. Santa Clarita has lots of potential and I just want to see the city change for the better and thrive.

[@underratedbub]

I'd object to "dying" amusement park. Six Flags Magic Mountain is in the runnings for the best roller coaster park in the world. I feel dismayed when I look from the top of the rides and see the neighboring hillsides getting newly developed with car-dependent sprawl. Please let's just build masses of dense infill in LA itself and keep some accessible nature around in SoCal! Paving over the orange groves was a mistake that will last forever, let's not do it again.

[@ajdenboer2162]

Lived in Santa Clarita for 3 years while attending The Master's University. Old Town Newhall was my favorite place to go. I appreciated parking in the parking structure and walking to all my favorite shops there. I will say, The Master's University is an incredibly conservative religious University tucked it a residential area with students who mostly socialize within the University's bubble. Looking back I would consider it a cult with a pervasive rape culture, an irresponsible handling of Covid-19 leading to multiple deaths, and toxic leadership. Many current residents are unaware of how bad TMU is.

[@underratedbub]

First! Thanks for the fix!

[@fourth_place]

thanks for letting me know! :)

[@beckiverson1531]

great vid

[@n34m]

because metrolink only goes in two directions, towards the av (ew no) or towards LA most of the stations are just for commuters, downtown newhall only has beer halls for the wack mellenials that inhabit those overpriced apartments. those new developments price locals out of the area. chiquita landfill is already paying out residents for damages (Edit: Awesometown lol)

[@me12722]

So many beautiful places in California that could have their own identity but instead trade it in for parking.

[@davidlemmon4603]

I've lived in Southern California sprawl my whole life and I never knew any different... I've been to Europe several occasions and some of the world's greatest cities are walkable and have amazing transit... Please STOP the sprawl because it just can't go on forever.. Is every sqaure foot of natural landscape going to be turned into the burbs?... We need to start building downtowns and logical infill developments... PLEASE stop the insanity.

[@dannyefaitch]

It’s such a terrible place to live.

[@ortegazs]

Have you ever thought that maybe the reason why we keep sprawling is because many people like it? People like to have space they don't want to live stacked upon each other, also the pandemic clearly showed that being in the city at times of crisis isnt always the best. Excellent points on transportation and mixed use buildings, genuinely, but People want land to do whatever they want with and there will always be a plethora of people that do not want to live in cities, also those that do but cannot afford it. People live in my small rural town in CA, or formerly the surburban life in AZand before that NM, bc they get more for their money usually the farther they go away from the city. Its just a simple fact. We don't need to be all centralized in order to have productive and efficient cities and towns, suburban and rural communities because there will always be people that want something different, we don't all want the same.

[@cordbarnes]

I completely agree. People want different things and the demonization of suburbs is so perplexing to me. The air and atmosphere argument against car centric cities that rely on two hour round trip commutes for work will be moot when most cars are electric (maybe eventually everything will be solar). That then leaves the land arguments which focus on housing availability but if you just adjust the zoning laws in cities where people already tolerate living on top of one another, then you just build taller and voila, people who like walkable cities have enough space and those who want a middle ground between rural and urban living are happy as well. I’ve lived in both and I have swung between preferences for both every handful of years. I don’t like the idea of forcing suburbanites to learn how to not want what they want so that urbanites can form the world into their vision of it. If you like cities change the cities to suit you don’t turn the suburbs into an ideal version of what you want just because draft 1 didn’t pan out; I left the city for a reason and it wasn’t because I wanted to turn my suburb into another version of NYC, I can just go to nyc if thats what I want.🤦🏾‍♂️

[@halahmilksheikh]

Exactly. Like he mentions Santa Clarita is the safest city in the USA. Maybe it’s a feature not a bug. Maybe it doesn’t need to be fixed.

[@Dannny-Lee]

LOL! 😂 I luv Santa Clarita, been living here for over five years now. Certainly more of a pleasant city compared to Palmdale (in the High Desert region), where I had lived prior. Only downside I would say is the *consistent* traffic around the Santa Clarita Valley. 😑👎🏼