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When 16 Seconds Put Us on the Map
“We’ve got an active shooter at Saugus High School,” said the dispatcher. And with that declaration Santa Clarita would never again be the same. The sleepy little town is known for the first successful oil strike in California in an area known as Mentryville; where silent movie actor William S. Hart filmed many of his movies and lived during the latter part of his life; and as a film industry mecca.
We’re in the TMZ “thirty mile zone” outside of Los Angeles and boast more than twenty sound stages and several movie studios, including the new Disney facility. There are also over a hundred miles of trails and paseos for biking, hiking, skating, and horseback riding. This popular community that appeared to have it all would be forever changed by the sixteen second from start to finish act of a single teenager on November 14th, 2019 at 7:38 in the morning.
In the years since 2006 that I have called Santa Clarita home, the population has ballooned from just over two hundred thousand residents to more than three hundred thousand. The city is now on track to reach four hundred thousand within the next five years and has been on the list of the fastest growing cities in California for the past seven years. With this growth comes opportunities, hopes and dreams fulfilled, and a certain lifestyle that are the positive sides of the coin, along with issues around…
