Dink’s New York Deli at The Patios Valencia is scheduled to open on January 25.

Here’s a sneak peak inside the almost-open Dink’s New York Deli in The Patios at Valencia Town Center Mall. Shhhhh… don’t let them know that I leaked this out!

The newest Dink’s location is definitely more upscale, with etched glass above the booths and custom artwork throughout, all designed to give it a New York-ish feel.

Menu items are much different than at their other locations, with a massive 9-page menu featuring everything from breakfast fare (check out their $3.95 weekday special) to deli sandwiches (including triple-deckers), appetizers (noshes), chicken, steak, fish, burgers, and kiddie meals. You can even watch them make fresh bagels through the front window.

This is deli-style dining and then some… even including the traditional chopped liver and liver and onions (sorry, Dink’s, not even a whole bottle of ketchup could make liver taste good) and fresh-made potato latkes with apple sauce and sour cream (yum!).

Chefs for this new location have been lured from some of the top Los Angeles restaurants (including Wolfgang Puck’s), so this promises to be a great addition to the Santa Clarita restaurant scene!

Watch for the Dink’s New York Deli grand opening on January 25!

Sprouts will bring more healthy food choices (and hopefully lower prices) for Santa Clarita residents.

Sprouts Farmers Market has a new location coming soon to the Valencia area, apparently to take up residence in the old Mervyn’s store location in the River Oaks Shopping Center across from the Valencia Town Center Mall sometime in 2010.

Sprouts carries a product line similar to Whole Foods, with locally-grown produce, vitamins and supplements, bakery, deli, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy and bulk foods. While this new store is not bringing a completely new concept to the Santa Clarita area, hopefully we will have a better selection and more price competition amongst the local competitors such as Whole Foods, Bristol Farms and Trader Joe’s.

The Sprouts motto is ‘Helping America eat healthier, live longer and spend less.’ Their current Orange County, CA ad shows some promise, with 5.6oz of blackberries for $0.77, oranges for $0.50/pound, avocados $0.50 each, shrimp and baby back ribs for $2.99/pound, and wild caught fish for $7.99/pound (salmon, ahi, swordfish, cod). Sprouts has announced that it will be opening six new stores in California, including Valencia (Santa Clarita), Huntington Beach, Culver City, San Diego, Sunnyvale and Thousand Oaks.

Some store facts: Sprouts was founded in 2002 in Arizona, with 42 stores in 4 states and plans to add 15 more stores in 2010. Existing store sizes range from 23,000 to 37,000 square feet. You can check out their bulk products and nutrition facts online.

Photo courtesy of Lazy Dog Cafe

The Patios at Valencia Town Center mall is nearing completion, with new restaurants SCV’ers to enjoy!

As The Patios at Valencia Town Center mall approaches its grand opening on November 18, some stores and restaurants are closer to completion than others. The Patios will feature a variety of shops and restaurants, from chain stores and restaurants to unique boutique shops and locally-owned restaurants.

The Patios is a 234,000 square foot addition to the mall, designed to be family-friendly as well as night life-friendly with open-air elements, landscaping, sparkling water features, community fireplaces, verandas and ‘al fresco’ style dining.

Scheduled to open on November 18 are BCBG Max Azria, Brighton Collectibles, En Ciel Jewelry, Parc 81, Tonalita, Tous and Yankee Candle. Opening in late November and December are Aveda Salon, Dinks NY Deli, Lazy Dog Café (pictured above) and Menchies, with 10 more stores and restaurants scheduled to open in 2010.

Lazy Dog Café will reportedly be offering 34 beers on tap, with rustic decor featuring paw prints and goofy dog photos on the walls and fire hydrants at the entrance and at the bar to go along with their ‘Sit Stay Play’ theme. Adirondack chairs and ledge-stone fireplaces also add to the ’sit and stay awhile’ atmosphere of Lazy Dog.

As part of the Mimi’s Cafe family of restaurants, Lazy Dog Café offers menu items inspired by recipes from Italy, South America, China, France, and classic Americana. Menu selections will include everything from Asian-inspired wok dishes to wood fired pizza, lamb and prime-grade beef dishes. Kids can choose from build-your-own pizzas, chili-cheese dogs, and even a spectacular dessert served in a dog bowl.

Woof!

Checking crime reports and other important data on your own can help you in selecting a neighborhood to move to.

Many homebuyers are concerned about crime and other safety issues when planning on moving to a new area. While the Santa Clarita area has been listed as one of the FBI’s safest cities for multiple years, you may want to check the specific area that you’re thinking of moving to just to be sure you’re not missing any important information. Shopping for a home is also shopping for a neighborhood, so it’s always a good idea to drive around the neighborhood you’re considering to make sure that it suits your needs and your style.

CrimeReports offers a mapping service that shows all crimes within given timeframes (3, 7, 14 and 30 days are standard) around a specified address. The map above shows crime around my office at 27720 Dickason Drive in Valencia for a 30-day period.

Interesting to note is that many of the crimes reported for this sample area are thefts from unlocked vehicles. Also reported are shoplifting and domestic violence, so you’ll want to look at the details provided to see what types of crimes are present in an area. Incidents are reported by block, not by location, and multiple incidents in an area are indicated by a computer icon. Items marked with a T on the map above are thefts (including shoplifting), TV are thefts from autos (including unlocked autos), A’s are assault (including domestic violence), B is breaking and entering (whether forcible or not), V is the theft of a vehicle. Note that there are no homicides or sexual offenses reported in this sample report.

If you’re looking for homes with a Realtor, there are limitations as to what she (or he) can tell you about an area without getting into potential legal hot water. Realtors cannot tell you the demographics of an area (race, religion, ethnicity) without being in violation of the Federal Fair Housing Act, so if that is a concern to you, it’s best to check the US Census Data on your own. For crime statistics, checking CrimeReports or similar resources would be your best option, since Realtors are not likely to be watching and tracking the police blotters for a given area as well as these reporting services can. For school ratings, you can check out GreatSchools or similar sites, but do watch the results on these because if a name is used more than once in a state in city names or in school names, you’ll often get multiple areas combined (a search for Valencia CA includes the Santa Clarita area plus schools in Fullerton, Laguna Hills, San Francisco, Covina, Pico Rivera, Placentia and more).

Santa Clarita Realtor Linda Slocum is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) and Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) specializing in Santa Clarita residential real estate, REOs and short sales. You can reach her at 661.670.0349 or at Linda@SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com. To search for Santa Clarita homes, use our neighborhood search tools or visit HoneyStartPacking.com.

Santa Clarita’s Six Flags Magic Mountain will add its 17th roller coaster in 2010.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia has announced that it will add a new family-oriented roller coaster to its offerings in 2010, bringing the total number of roller coasters at Magic Mountain to 17. This will keep them tied for the title of “roller coaster capital of the world” according to Roller Coaster Database.

The newly announced roller coaster has not been named yet, but is expected to open in early summer 2010 at the northwest corner of the park, adjacent to Terminator® Salvation™:  The Ride. Six Flags Magic Mountain has also announced lower Play Pass (season pass) rates for 2010, priced at $54.99 with no blackout dates.

The logo and name for the new family coaster are expected to be announced in November 2009. This coaster will join rides like Canyon Blaster that are designed for parents and young children to enjoy together.

Why is this important to Santa Clarita residents? Well, first off, the Magic Mountain theme park is one of Santa Clarita Valley’s biggest employers. In addition, the threat of a sell-off of the park to residential developers seems to be completely laid to rest, with the addition of this new roller coaster as well as the recently opened Terminator® Salvation™:  The Ride.

Santa Clarita Realtor Linda Slocum is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) and Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) specializing in Santa Clarita residential real estate and short sales. You can reach her at 661.670.0349 or at Linda@SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com. To search for Santa Clarita homes, use our neighborhood search tools or visit HoneyStartPacking.com.

Golden Oak Ranch in Santa Clarita to be expanded with the Disney | ABC Studios at The Ranch project.

Disney and ABC have announced plans to expand their facilities at the Golden Oak Ranch, adding 12 new sound stages and other production facilities to their existing property near Highway 14 and Placerita Canyon in the Santa Clarita Valley. This expansion is expected to create over 3,100 jobs and bring $522 million of economic activity to the region during the constuction phase, and over 2,800 jobs and annual economic activity of $533 million once the new production facilities are in use.

The Disney | ABC Studios at The Ranch is expected to remain as a private production facility, as Golden Oak Ranch has been in the past, due to liability and safety concerns. Since production facility vacancies in the region can fall as low as 1% at times, Disney and ABC plan to use the new facilities primarily for their own productions, but may rent out the facilities to other production companies at times.

The new facilities will be built on a 56-acre portion of the Golden Oak Ranch property, utilitizing about 6% of the 890-acre facility. Construction is expected to take environmental concerns into account, including minimizing energy and water usage, respecting the natural landscape, building according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, and locating projects so they have direct access to Highway 14.

Says Jason Crawford, the City of Santa Clarita’s economic development manager, “I think that now that Disney is committed to doing this, we’re going to see many post-production, visual effects and other film-related businesses that want to move here as well. That will have the single biggest impact on the Santa Clarita economy than anything I have seen since I’ve been here.”

This is great news for Santa Clarita residents, as this facility will generate an estimated 2,854 full and part-time jobs after build-out is complete, with an estimated $200,000 in annual revenues going to the City of Santa Clarita and $1.3 million in annual revenues going to Los Angeles County. It’s hard to say when construction will begin though, since the normal permitting and approval processes have to be completed first, and that could take years. There will be opportunities for public input and review of the environmental impact reports as the project progresses.

Santa Clarita’s Kid Expo features kid-friendly activities and exhibits to show off the family-friendly events and services that Santa Clarita has to offer.

Steve Martin Wildlife

Santa Clarita’s 7th annual Kid Expo will be held this Sunday, October 18, from 11am to 4pm at Golden Valley High School. Kid Expo is an annual event held by the Santa Clarita Child & Family Center.

Kid Expo features exhibitors from throughout the Santa Clarita Valley showcasing products and services for children, including local events. There will be games, arts and crafts, reading and storytelling, art, music, sports, and entertainment as well as special appearances by cartoon characters.

This year, Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife is bringing the “wild” to Kid Expo.  Get up close and personal with a bear cat, porcupine, bob cat, red fox, birds of prey and as well as the Monkey from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Other nature-type exhibits include the Wyland Clean Water Mobile Learning Center, where students are tasked to solve mysterious disturbances in the health of our nation’s water habitats, with exhibits focusing on lake regions, river management estuaries, and ocean runoff. Also featured will be the Yogi Bear’s s Shaky Quaky Schoolhouse, which simulates an earthquake.

Kid Expo will also include a rock wall, the Dr. Wilderness Magic Show and mobile video arcades, as well as a ton of exhibitors displaying everything from health and safety products and services to sports and performing arts.

After many years of battling over the proposed Elsmere Canyon dump, the area approaches protected status with the passage of AB 110.

Photo courtesy of City of Santa Clarita

Santa Clarita’s Elsmere Canyon got one step closer to protected status with the Governor’s signature on AB 110 this week.

AB 110 calls for a revision of the boundaries by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy of the Rim of the Valley Trail Corridor, in the vicinity of Placerita Canyon and SR 14, including Whitney Canyon, to include these areas and their watersheds.

The Elsmere Canyon area has been an area of dispute for many years, with Allied Waste finally agreeing not to develop it into a landfill according to an agreement reached in 2007. Still, the City of Santa Clarita wanted to make sure that Elsmere Canyon would remain protected from future development, and thus supported AB 110.

The history of the proposed Elsmere Canyon dump site goes back many years, with a complicated saga involving the allocation of public and private land to create a 1,500 acre dump site capable of holding 190 million tons of waste. This would have created the world’s largest dump just outside the City of Santa Clarita.

CLWA’s landscape education program offers free lectures for Santa Clarita residents.

The Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) holds free landscape lectures at its fabulous Water Conservatory Garden that are well worth looking into.

The next lecture, featuring SCV Trees, is on October 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon,  and includes a question and answer period. November’s lecture will feature Soils and Fertilizers, and will be presented on November 21.

The CLWA Landscape Education Program offers a classroom and garden setting for those who want to learn more about gardening and conservation. Classes are repeated each year, and generally meet the third Saturday each month.

A tour around the Conservatory Garden is an education in itself, with numerous displays and abundant gardens to view and enjoy. Situated above the Santa Clarita’s Central Park, it’s a quiet oasis away from the normal city distractions.

Overzealous Santa Clarita Code Enforcement Officers accused of harassing homeowners.

It’s been no secret that the Santa Clarita Code Enforcement nazi’s have been out and about in the Santa Clarita Valley, targeting one neighborhood at a time to convince homeowners to get their homes visually up to snuff. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, since many of the code enforcement violations include unsafe (and unsightly) garage conversions. However, these mandates need to be issued with some common sense in mind, and to expect old neighborhoods to be brought up to new code standards is simply ludicrous.

Until now there have apparently been no reports of outright abuse by these code enforcement officers. However, it seems at last night’s Santa Clarita City Council meeting, the residents of the Bonelli tract in Saugus took the floor in the public participation portion and raised some serious concerns about code enforcement tactics in their neighborhood.

Quoted from IHeartSCV:

Beginning around the time of Extreme Neighborhood Makeovers, residents began receiving harshly worded letters that they were violating the City’s Unified Development Code concerning driveway width, fencing materials, lawn maintenance, and other landscaping matters of grave importance. It’s an old neighborhood, built long before the codes it presently violates were even written. The codes had never been enforced before, and many seemed inappropriate for the community.

But they were suddenly enforced with great zeal by a certain Daniel Rivas, City Community Preservation Officer. By all accounts, Rivas is a most unpleasant person to deal with, driving three speakers to tears as they delivered their statements about him and his department. Here are some lowlights:

1. A woman said Daniel Rivas took pictures of her driveway without even introducing himself and threatened to put a lien on her home if she and her husband didn’t comply with code.

2. Another woman said that a member of code enforcement (whom she would later identify as Rivas) told her “the front yard looked like crap” and threatened a lien and jail time if she didn’t pave the driveway. After paving the driveway, he told her there was now too much concrete and instructed her to reduce the amount, all of this at considerable personal expense.

3. A middle-aged man said Rivas “has no compassion whatsoever.” He said that he has “a lot to learn,” and complained about being targeted for having weeds in his lawn.

4. In the most troubling comment, a man came forward to describe how Rivas told him that he needed to fix up his yard. As he got into his story, he began to cry and a neighbor had to step in and finish reading his written comments for him. You see, the man’s mother and mother-in-law both died within weeks of one another, and when he asked Rivas for more time in light of these tragic losses, his plea “fell on deaf ears.”

Wow… Seems something is definitely wrong at Santa Clarita City Hall in the Code Enforcement department, and whether it’s just one renegade employee or the whole department remains to be seen. Apparently City Council members apologized for this behavior at the end of last night’s meeting.