25 Years: This is Not a Joke

Dear Readers:

I rarely request favors, so I hope you’ll consider indulging me in this one.  If you’re going to the City Council Meeting tonight and have a modicum of civic pride, please please please read this letter during Public Participation.  I am unable to read it myself this evening.  Without a wake-up call, I’m afraid the celebration of Santa Clarita’s 25^th Anniversary of Cityhood is going to be really lame.

 

Print out a copy, practice your timing once or twice, and read it.  If we, the people who think and read and write about Santa Clarita don't enthuse about her big anniversary, who will?  

 

Yours,

IHSCV 

 

Council and Staff of the City of Santa Clarita: We have a question for you this evening, one famously posed by R&B group Jagged Edge: Where the party at?

Santa Clarita’s 25^th Anniversary of Cityhood will be celebrated on Saturday, December 15, 2012.  It’s  just a month away but still, no invite.  We know you like to plan everything far in advance.  That’s why we’re concerned that, as of today, there isn’t the merest mention of Santa Clarita’s 25^th Anniversary of Cityhood on the official calendar, much less mention of a 25^th Anniversary party or gala. 

The SCV Historical Society is holding an open house and celebration in the afternoon, but we want—nay, we demand—a City-hosted event befitting this magnificent milestone.  Perhaps you thought that the State of the City Luncheon, with its “25 Years of Success” theme, counted as a celebration.  It didn’t.  Maybe you think that your 25^th Anniversary web pages are sufficient observation of this milestone.  They aren’t.  We want an honest-to-goodness party for Santa Clarita's birthday.  We want food and drinks and a competent DJ.  Here are some other ideas which you may wish to think of including for the event.  Please, take notes.

Idea 1: Have a New-Year’s-style countdown to 4:30pm, the time at which we became a city.  At 4:30, shout “Happy Cityhood!”, etcetera. 

Idea 2: Before the countdown, have some entertaining speakers talk about the past 25 years: think John Boston, Tony & Reena Newhall, Leon Worden…people who will talk about more than parks and roads.

Idea 3: Put out donation boxes for local non-profits, and challenge every Claritan in attendance to donate $25 to one or more cherished causes.

You’ve hosted lots of successful events, Santa Clarita, and we know you can pull off something great for the 25^th Anniversary of Cityhood.  Once this anniversary passes, we don’t have another big one until 2037, and by that point, a lot of the VIPs on the guest list are probably going to be dead.  So please, while the people who shaped Santa Clarita for the past 25 years are still alive, let’s do this thing right.  Let's show just how much we all heart SCV. 

 

CONTINGENCIES:

 

IF IN AUDIENCE: Begin slow clap at end of speech, building to thunderous applause. 

IF MAYOR FERRY DEMANDS ORDER: Clap even louder, and yell variants of “We’ll stop clapping when you start planning!”, “Hearting SCV is not a crime, Frank!”, etc.

IF YOU PLANNED TO READ THIS BUT GET CALLED AFTER IT’S ALREADY BEEN READ: Simply state: “I, too, am here in support of a celebration befitting Santa Clarita’s 25^th Anniversary of Cityhood.  Forgetting an annviersary is tacky, so don't."