Chapter 10: The Southern Coastlands: On the Subtropical Margin

Down in the southern coastlands, they are easily deceived by the typical mild winters. Like stated in the book, they may attempt to produce their crops all year round, but unfortunately some inevitable circumstances creeps up on them unexpectedly. Those mid-winter frost comes through the southern lands like Florida and considerable crop damage happens and financially gives them hardship. Those kinds of unforeseeable circumstances cannot be prevented, but at the same time, with the type of mild winter Florida has, it is hard to make a prediction. In Santa Clarita, it is a 4 season year. It is easier to predict what the outcome of the weather can be.

Another disaster that the southern coastland experiences are the hurricanes. Hurricanes are large cyclonic tropical storms that are generated by intense solar heating over large bodies of warm water. Like stated in the book, "The earth's rotation and spheroidal shape mean that air flowing toward the hurricane's center establishes the storm's broad, counterclockwise rotational pattern. The deeper the pressure pocket, the faster the wind flows and the more destructive the storm's potential(textbook).

Examples and different categories of the hurricanes:

Apr 11 2011
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is utilized to determine the relative strengths of hurricanes that may impact the United States coast. Since the 1990s, only wind speed has been used to categorize hurricanes.

Category One Hurricane

* Maximum Sustained Wind Speed: 74-95 miles per hour
* Damage Category: Minimal
* Approximate Pressure: Above 980 mb
* Approximate Storm Surge: 3-5 feet
* Examples: Hurricane Lili (2002) in Louisiana; Hurricane Gaston (2004) in South Carolina

Category Two Hurricane

* Maximum Sustained Wind Speed: 96-110 miles per hour
* Damage Category: Moderate
* Approximate Pressure: 979-965 mb
* Approximate Storm Surge: 6-8 feet
* Example: Hurricane Isabel (2003) in North Carolina

Category Three Hurricane

* Maximum Sustained Wind Speed: 111-130 miles per hour
* Damage Category: Extensive
* Approximate Pressure: 964-945 mb
* Approximate Storm Surge: 9-12 feet
* Examples: Hurricane Katrina (2005) in Louisiana; Hurricane Jeanne (2004) in Florida; Hurricane Ivan (2004) in Alabama

Category Four Hurricane

* Maximum Sustained Wind Speed: 131-155 miles per hour
* Damage Category: Extreme
* Approximate Pressure: 944-920 mb
* Approximate Storm Surge: 13-18 feet
* Example: Hurricane Charley (2004) in Florida; Hurricane Iniki (1992) in Hawaii; the Galveston Hurricane (1900) in Texas

Category Five Hurricane

* Maximum Sustained Wind Speed: Above 155 miles per hour
* Damage Category: Catastrophic
* Approximate Pressure: Below 920 mb
* Approximate Storm Surge: More than 18 feet
* Examples: Only three Category 5 hurricanes have struck the United States since records began: The Labor Day Hurricane (1935) in the Florida Keyes, Hurricane Camille (1969) near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Hurricane Andrew (1992) in Florida



(Information obtained from)
(Regional Landscapes of the United States and Canada textbook page 196-197)
(Hurricane categories: http://geography.about.com/od/lists/a/hurrcategories.htm)

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)