Chapter 9: The Changing South

In the south back in the days, the south was impacted by slavery. Nowadays, the south can be seen as being changed and that many African Americans reside in the south. Just like the south changing, Santa Clarita has experience a great of change. As I talk to many of my customers at work, they tell me that a lot of the Valencia and Saugus area used to be plantations and agricultures. As the years progress, many of the plantation has been taken down and built road and many buildings to modernize the area. In today's society, the city of Santa Clarita is preparing for the future and is modernizing by making more houses for people to move to. A lot of people who lives up north or south but commutes to work can easy live in the new houses being built. The plus side about Santa Clarita is that everybody has their or sets of beliefs. This area is very diverse compared to how it was earlier.

(The picture was taken from:)
(http://aquafornia.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/santa-clarita-from-the-end-of-ermine-2-22009.jpg)

Chapter 8: Appalachia and the Ozarks

The nearest mountain range in Santa Clarita is Santa Susana Mountain. It is a transverse range of mountains in Southern California. It is located north of Los Angeles. It comes from east to west which separates the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley on its south, from Santa Clara River Valley to the north, and Santa Clarita Valley to the northeast. In the winter time, the mountains is typically wet with cold temperatures. But in the summer time, the temperature gets really hot and is really prone to wild fire. A video below shows the fire that happened there.



In Santa Clarita, because of its dry summer seasons, we are prone to having wild fire. Sometimes people accidentally throw cigarette on the ground and it catches fire, and some do it on purpose, but living here in Santa Clarita for fifteen years, I have encountered several of them


(The picture and information were taken from:)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Santa_Susana_Mts.jpg)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW8NHmdtY-s)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Mountains)

Chapter 7: The Bypassed East- Perplexing Future

Like some of the blogs that I have read, this chapter focuses on the eastern side of the country. So in this case I will be talking about the perplexing future of Santa Clarita. From the textbook, it stated: "Information technology and innovative approaches to education: multinational corporations, and entrepreneurial successes; greater personal mobility and leisure time..." Santa Clarita has been focusing on modernizing the city. When I was first entered high school in 2002, there were the 4 high school, but now there is Golden Valley which opened up in 2004. They are also focusing on building more houses and developing more routes around the city. The development of Newhall Ranch which they are expecting or hoping to finish up in 2012 is expected to try and bring in about 70,000 more people and create around 20,000 new jobs. So right now, Santa Clarita is investing money in modernizing and making new houses to bring in more jobs and people into the city.


(Information were taken from these resources)
(United States and Canada textbook)
(http://www.santaclaritaguide.com/)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clarita,_California)

Chapter 5: Manufacturing

Santa Clarita is not really known for its manufacturing. When people ask me where I live, I tend to say Santa Clarita. When you ask other people where they are from people say a city and you somewhat know what that place is or what they are known for. When I tell them I am from Santa Clarita some say that they don't know where that is and some say that "Oh that is where Six Flags is!" Besides Cal Arts and Six Flags Magic Mountain, Santa Clarita is known to be the place where you pass through the 14 North freeway to go to Lancaster/Palmdale area or Bakersfield area if you pass through the 5 North. For this section of the blog, I will just talk a little about Los Angeles since it is in that county.

Los Angeles is known to be the largest manufacturing center in the west side of the country. They are driven by things such as international trade, entertainment, fashion, and tourism. At one point, they were the home of a few major financial institutions. One of the major plus sides in Los Angeles is that they are a major freight railroad transportation center. Huge volume of supplies are going in and out of the country's port that it makes it convenient for everyone. The picture above of this section of the blog is The Financial District of Downtown Los Angeles. The picture below shows the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach.





(The picture and information was taken from:)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/L.A_Financial_district.JPG)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County,_California)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/LA-port%2BLong-Beach1.jpg)

Chapter 4: Megalopolis

A megalopolis is a large or densely populated city. Santa Clarita is a heavy populated city. The city contains 168,008 people in 2006. The break down in percentage in different statistics for the people who lives in Santa Clarita are:

White persons, percent, 2000 (a) 79.5%
Black persons, percent, 2000 (a) 2.1%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2000 (a) 0.6%
Asian persons, percent, 2000 (a) 5.2%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent, 2000 (a) 0.1%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000 (b) 20.5%

I wouldn't consider Santa Clarita to be an Megalopolis because even though it is the 4th largest city in the Los Angeles County, it is still not big enough on its own. For a place to be seen as an megalopolis, three characteristics must be met: " high population density, major urban centers growing toward one another, and a large demand for primary goods that are brought in from other regions." Maybe the whole Los Angeles County might be enough to start a megalopolis, but Santa Clarita itself is not big enough.

(Information were taken from these resources)
(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0669088.html)
(http://www.countriesquest.com/north_america/usa/geography/regions_of_the_united_states/regional_breakdowns/megalopolis.htm)

Chapter 3: Foundation

The gentleman featured above is the founder of Newhall. As you know, Newhall is one of the subsections that makes up Santa Clarita. I currently reside here. It is definitely an interesting story how Mr. Newhall founded it. Henry Mayo Newhall, who came from Saugus, Massachusetts, was interested in investing his money in railroad rails. These investment purpose was to find a way to connect San Francisco to other cities. As business boomed, Henry and his partners sold their company to the Southern Pacific Railroad. Now, Henry turned his eyes on real estate. He was able to acquire land by purchasing them at a very cheap price. The area we now know as Newhall Ranch was purchased by Newhall for 2 dollars/acre. Eventually, Henry sold his portion of his land. Once the land became a city, the city was named after him, "Newhall." The area of Saugus was named after his hometown of Saugus, Massachusetts. By 1987, all the small subsections in this city became known as Santa Clarita.




(Pictures and information are from:)
(http://www.santaclarita.com/images/general/Henry_Mayo_Newhall.jpg)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clarita,_California)

Chapter 2: Climate in Santa Clarita

In this chapter, the book touches up a section in climate. Stated in the book, climate is: "the aggregate of day-to-day weather conditions, a characterization of weather conditions prevailing across many years." Here in Santa Clarita, I guess you can say that I have the best location because you get to experience all the 4 different seasons of the year.

The four seasons are and their typical months are:

Spring: April, May, June
Summer: July, August, September
Fall: October, November, December
Winter: January, February, March

These months are pretty accurate, but sometimes they either get delayed or come around a month early.

In the spring, you would typically have a weather of a light breeze and around 70-85 degrees. Summer averages in the mid 90's and can reach up around 105+ degrees. It gets pretty hot here but the plus side is it makes it a great time to go swimming everyday anytime! Fall weather is perfect to bring out the light jackets out. With the win picking up, the weather tends to be around 60-70 degrees. It can get colder than that but usually that is the typical average. Winter time here gets pretty chilly. Usually the typical weather around this time is from 40-60 degrees. I have personally felt colder and had experience snow here twice. Both times has been in 2011. Below is a clip from youtube.com from a guy who videoed snow in Santa Clarita.

Places such as the Aquatic Center and Hurricane Harbor are great attractions to go to to hang out in the scorching weather in the summer.




(Pictures and videos were received from:)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PewykHUSjdU)
(http://www.incrediblecoasters.com/sfhhentrance4.JPG)
(http://santaclaritacitybriefs.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/wide.jpg)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Santa Clarita also known as Santa Clarita Valley or SCV is known to be the fourth largest in the Los Angeles County. This city contains several communities. These communities are Canyon Country, Saugus, Valencia, and Newhall. With having the Golden State Interstate 5 and the Antelope Valley SR-14 freeway as the principle boundaries, they contain a very unique shaped appearance on the map.

(The location of Santa Clarita in California and its unique triangular shape)

Santa Clarita contain different attractions. Attractions such as Six Flags Magic Mountain and the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) are just some of the few that Santa Clarita has to offer. In January 1, 2010, the Department of Finance had put out an estimate that Santa Clarita around 177,641 people.

Being compared to cities with at least 100,000 inhabitants, Santa Clarita ranked to be 6th safest city in the United States.

CENSUS OF 2000:

PEOPLE- 151,088
HOUSEHOLDS- 50,787
FAMILIES- 38,242

POPULATION DENSITY- 3,159.1 MILES SQUARED

Until today in present time, Santa Clarita is becoming or urbanized. I say this because Santa Clarita continues develop and modernize the city. Back in the early days, Old Town Newhall used to be a land filled with agriculture. As time pass by, Santa Clarita slowly formed to become what it is today.

(information and pictures are from:)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Newhall-1919.jpg)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clarita,_California)
(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0669088.html)