AMGEN FOES SHOULD GET OVER THEMSELVES.

Byline: Posted by Carol Rock

valleynews.com user

In what I hope isn't an exercise in futility, I'm hoping to reach some of my fellow Santa Claritans who seem to be living in a leftover bomb shelter and give them a virtual smack upside the head.

I'm talking to those of you who must not travel on any roads in our community, listen to the local radio station, surf the Internet, read a newspaper or look at billboards. I know you're out there, because you came out from under your rocks to complain about last weekend's Amgen bicycle race and how it "paralyzed" the city.

Give me a break. That race and its course, detours and road closures had been publicized ad nauseam in every form of media available, just like the upcoming ATT Champions Classic golf tournament and Cowboy Festivals are plastered everywhere now. Those events and a myriad of others make it fun to live here and will (gasp!) affect traffic in some parts of the city.

Here's a news flash: Nobody pulls off surprise events here. Just because you choose to wear blinders doesn't make the city a bad guy.

I was at the Amgen race, a whirlwind flurry of excitement that brought more than 100,000 people into town to stand out on a limited stretch of McBean Parkway and cheer before they did other things like buy gas, eat at restaurants, stay at hotels, shop our stores and maybe decide our welcoming community would be a nice place to buy a house.

It's the same crowd that comes in to play golf or pretend they're part of the Wild West or make chalk drawings on our pavement or drink wine. Santa Clarita seems to have figured out hospitality and does it very well.

For those of you who still don't get it, do the math: People come into town and put money into the big pot from which the city pays for parks, police, firefighters, road improvements and other amenities. It's a good thing that our proactive city goes out of its way to look for income-producing events like this or our lives would be a lot less enjoyable and a lot more expensive.

Now I know you're probably saying that the mall missed the $15 you would have spent on lunch if you could have found a parking space, but balance that against the thousands of dollars paid by hotel guests across the street who spent twice as much for breakfast. It's a temporary inconvenience with a phenomenal payoff.

I'm not a cycling enthusiast, but there were a few things that drew me to the race. I like to see them as opportunities. One, my husband painted the California Bear sculpture in front of the sponsor tent and the miniature award given to winner J.J. Haedo (opportunities for artists...) ; two, I'd never seen a bike race before (opportunities to expand my horizons) and three, it sounded like a good party (my favorite opportunity).

It went off like the best hat trick I'd ever seen. The weather was perfect and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, especially all my new best friends who enthusiastically shared their knowledge of the sport with this first-timer.

But to hear some of you, it was like someone put you under house arrest because you didn't plan ahead. Get over yourselves.You don't get to rob a bank and tell the arresting officer "nobody told me it was illegal" and walk away. Part of life is paying attention.

We have special events to put Santa Clarita on the map. If you don't want to live in a place that goes out of its way to attract visitors, here's your hat. What's your hurry?