Castaic and Westridge urge Santa Clarita boycott in light of recent increase in Parks and Recreation fees.

Upset by the recent increase in Parks and Recreation fees to residents of the unincorporated areas of Santa Clarita, the Castaic and Westridge town councils are urging their residents to boycott Santa Clarita businesses in protest.

Each town council will discuss the options available to them in protesting this fee increase at their upcoming meetings, but for now they are urging their residents to boycott Santa Clarita.

Together these areas represent about 10,000 residents, so although this may not have a significant impact on the City’s finances, the message is certainly clear! And of course the local businesses will suffer more from this boycott than the City’s coffers, which is very unfortunate.

Lloyd Carder II, president of the Castaic Town Council stated, "I think what Ferry and them have done is they’ve declared war on the unincorporated areas. The city should be making friends and not enemies."

Considering that non-residents of the City of Santa Clarita reportedly make up 49% of about 350,000 participants in the City’s Parks and Rec program, what would happen if all of these people abandoned the City’s programs in favor of creating programs on their own turf in Los Angeles County facilities instead? Would the City’s programs be able to survive this loss of participation and income?

The unincorporated areas are pushing Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to do exactly this - to complete and upgrade the parks and recreation facilities that are already planned or are in place and incomplete.

This of course puts Antonovich’s office between a rock and a hard place, attempting to play mediator between the City of Santa Clarita and the rest of the residents of the Santa Clarita Valley.

One Valley, One Vision? NOT!!!

I’m sure the boycotted Santa Clarita businesses will greatly appreciate the City Council’s concern for their welfare as well.

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