Some terms have undeserved negative connotations like conservative Christian, gun owner, gas-powered vehicles, and NIMBY (not in my back yard). I would like to address the last term as it applies to the proposed new eight-story county courthouse on McBean Parkway near Valencia Boulevard, across from the mall.
I would like to tell the (state), the county and the city of Santa Clarita: not in my back yard!
Nimbyism isn’t about shrugging off our problem onto somebody else or some other neighborhood. It is about taking pride in the neighborhood we have built and not wanting to validate someone else’s very bad idea. There are several reasons why I oppose this project.
1. Traffic: McBean and Valencia is already one of the busiest intersections in the Santa Clarita Valley. With the added traffic of the proposed 2,000-plus residential units at the mall and the new Costco, traffic will only get worse. Have you ever been to the county courthouse in downtown Los Angeles? Do we really want those kind of traffic and parking woes?
2. Safety: The new courthouse will have 24 courtrooms, which would be busy dealing with accused criminals five days a week. Do we really want a continual parade of L.A.’s worst waiting around to be called in for trial? Do we want a spectacle of handcuffed prisoners who are being transported in prison buses while awaiting their trials? Many people who live in Valencia moved here to get away from Los Angeles or the San Fernando Valley. Why spoil our beautiful, safe community?
3. Viable Alternative: Any good NIMBY will have an alternate plan that will work. If the (state) insists that Santa Clarita step up to the plate and be home to an eight-story court building, I propose they build it in the industrial center, away from homes and the mall. There is easy access to the freeway and the Pitchess Detention Center jail facility is close by. There are no schools in the industrial center, and if a prisoner escapes, as they inevitably will, schools will not have to be locked down.
Common sense, which is in short supply these days, tells us that putting a huge courthouse in the middle of a safe residential community is just a plain bad idea.
Larry Moore
Valencia
