Santa Clarita

I live off of Placenta Canyon and it is wonderful. We have a large home with acreage and it is quiet, resort-like, and restful. Anyone who lives in Sand Canyon (as I do) or Placenta Canyon is generally very happy because we have space, beauty and upper middle class neighbors.This section of Santa Clarita is home to professionals. Our neighborhood houses attorneys, lawyers, business owners, consultants, retirees, dentists. Every time we think to move closer to LAX we have friends who are corporate executives visit and say that they would never leave here because we don't have the crime, traffic, helicopter, ambulance noise.... that they have in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino....Because we live right off of Placenta Canyon and the 14 we avoid a lot of the traffic that Valencia experiences. We easily drive to Santa Monica, Hollywood....my daughter used to conveniently take the train into USC from Newhall station which is always staffed with a sheriff (unlike the red line in North Hollywood to USC) so she felt safe.

I lived in Santa Clarita for 2 years. I was excited at first because I was able to become a homeowner and the schools are good but it's seriously where dreams go to die unless you love rows of ticky tacky generic houses in corporate developments, strip malls and lots of fast food and subpar restaurants. It wasn't long before my excitement faded into regret. The people are okay but definitely stuck in the work more so we can buy more suburban mentality. Not much diversity either or outside of the box thinking going on here. It's definitely a commuter town with an inferiority complex. In short, it's the burbs. No originality. No personality. If you like nice weather you might skip this place in the Summer too. It gets very hot. Gave it a try but not for me and my family.

Anyone looking for a city center, walk everywhere community is looking in the wrong place. Santa Clarita is family-friendly, suburbs, safe with local access to everything.

Excellent schools. Population is made up of entertainment industry, law enforcement and emergency services (think Copland North).

I've lived in SCV off and on since 1981 and, simply put, I'm not a fan.

Pros:

-Aside from most of Canyon Country, Santa Clarita is about as safe as it gets ANYWHERE in LA county.
-Bike paths (sparsely utilized but well conceived)
-Lots of restaurants (albeit about 75% of them are "meh")

Cons:

-I'm super-biased but this town is not for the liberal or progressively minded, like at all. I can count the card carrying democrats I've met here on one hand
-Everyone commutes, angrily and with a certain amount of personal entitlement.
-Little public transportation
-Much like Irvine (well, actually in the case of Valencia, exactly like Irvine) this community was designed by a corporation and aside from old town Newhall or the Mall in the middle of Valencia, there is no "main street" and most of the outside green spaces are privately owned or managed by HOAs.
-Similarly, there are very few actual neighborhoods; only developments.
-The air quality (especially in Summer) is usually rated somewhere between "moderate" and "unhealthful" by the local news.
-Honestly, I pretty much hate this town - like I actually despise it.

Santa Clarita is technically not in LA County, but you might call it a satellite community—so close that it is worth mention when thinking about when you’re looking for a great place to live in the LA Area. Santa Clarita is actually a very old community, having been founded by a successful SF investor way back in the 19th century. It took a hundred years though for it to officially become its own city.

If you live in the San Fernando Valley, you probably only know Santa Clarita as the home to Six Flags Magic Mountain, this city’s main claim to fame and biggest employer. However, if you are looking for a great community that is just far enough away from the problems that plague LA County, but still want to be close enough to LA to commute to work or enjoy what LA has to offer, then Santa Clarita might be just the solution. Now, I would not recommend it if you work south of say Westwood or in LA itself, the commute might be a killer then. But if you have a job that allows you to telecommute on some days, or if you work in the Valley, Santa Clarita might be a great place to set down roots.

Although it is an old community, you would not know it from big rancho style houses here that all seem to date from the 90’s or newer. These are beautiful well-kept neighborhoods with green lawns and lots of open spaces. You are literally in the middle of the mountains here, so you have that as a backdrop and also as a bit of a barrier against the worst temperatures of the Valley. Air quality is also much better here than in LA whose smog belt you can see from the freeway as you head south.

There is a commuter train line that connects Santa Clarita to the rest of LA, so you might keep that as an option for commuting to work. You can use commute time to work on a laptop and thus increase your efficiency. Santa Clarita also has a strong business community as well—Princess Cruises, for example has their HQ here.

This is also a great place to raise kids. Not only will they always be able to find employment at Magic Mountain, but the schools are good and well financed. Santa Clarita also has three business oriented colleges, the College of the Canyons being only the most prominent.

The city is just developed enough where it has everything you could want from a suburban area: nice malls and good restaurants. In addition, I imagine that you can’t beat the hiking and outdoor life around here.

In a nutshell, Santa Clarita is a great little underappreciated gem, just north of LA County.