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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Antelope Valley Filled With Many Stories Good and Bad

Within its 2,200-square mile boundaries, from where the highway comes out of the mountain pass south of Palmdale to the expanse of desert north of Lancaster and the military bases to beyond the state poppy reserve in the west, the Valley tells stories of hopes and dreams both realized and unfulfilled. The empty stretches of land on the east side of Palmdale stand as a silent reminder to the ambitions for an international airport that, well, never took flight. Still, the story of Palmdale is one of resilience and persistence, said its mayor, Jim Ledford. “It’s recognizing we are the future for Southern California,” he added. Along the Sierra Highway, what had been the main road to and through the Valley before the freeway, the small, independent motels tell the story of bypassed commerce; their names – the Tropic, Sands, Sahara, Aloha – evoking images of exotic getaways. Further north, into the desert, the Mojave Spaceport writes the next chapter in the region’s rich aerospace history with the development of private spacecraft for the emerging New Space industry. A decade ago William Finnegan told a story about the Antelope Valley that few wanted to hear about or acknowledge – of white teens and young adults whose downward mobility consisted of drugs, easy sex, lack of parental supervision and involvement in skinhead gangs. “The Unwanted” first appeared in 1997 in The New Yorker magazine. Finnegan later expanded it into the final chapter of his book, “Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country.” The Antelope Valley of “The Unwanted” suffered from the loss of aerospace jobs after the end of the Cold War brought cuts in weapons programs. USA Today branded the Valley “the foreclosure capital of the world.” High school seniors no longer relied on a well-paying job at one of the aircraft manufacturers. The Antelope Valley had become, Finnegan wrote, the place where movie companies came to burn down or blow up houses. For a scene in “Lethal Weapon 3,” filmmakers used an abandoned housing tract at 30th and J Street in Lancaster: “Mel Gibson and Danny Glover went on a memorable rampage through the place, which was now a wasteland (tumbleweeds, shopping carts, graffiti-covered sofas) surrounded by a high brown wall.” At that same intersection in 2008 one empty corner remains, the others contain vine-covered walls surrounding single-family homes that haven’t exploded or been set on fire. At the time the magazine story first appeared, Finnegan was accused of selective reporting and blowing out of proportion the problems skinheads posed in the Valley. “The story is an absolute misappropriation of writer’s ink,” then-Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts was quoted in the Los Angeles Times. Today, officials need a reminder of who Finnegan is and what he wrote about. Whoever orders books for the area libraries holds no hard feelings. The county regional library in Lancaster has two copies of “Cold New World” on its shelves. There is one copy at the Palmdale Library. The Valley has moved on from its depiction in Finnegan’s writing although elements remain. A housing tract can rise on a wasteland but attitudes toward race, drugs, and the future don’t change as fast. Just as when Finnegan spent time there, the Valley once again faces tough economic times. Unlike the 90s, this time it is not about job cuts at the major aerospace companies. This time it is driven by the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market. While the Valley does not take back the title of “foreclosure capital of the world” the numbers remain high, particularly on the east side of Palmdale. Of 12 major population areas in Southern California, the Antelope Valley ranked second behind the Victor Valley in the number of homes in default per 1000 (38.3) and the number of homes in foreclosure per 1,000 (15), according to Mark Schniepp, director of the California Economic Forecast. Still, the situation has not reached the proportions it did in the mid-1990s. In 1997 foreclosures peaked at 4.81 percent of all total housing units. In 2007, foreclosures accounted for 2.57 percent of total housing units, according to statistics provided by the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance. However, Alliance President Mel Layne said, if the trend continues at the current level foreclosures may exceed those in 1997. “I think (foreclosures) will reach a peak this year,” Layne added. As the head of an organization that promotes business, the story Layne wants told is the Antelope Valley is a good place for growing companies to relocate. He’s talking manufacturers, companies that make something other than hamburgers or chicken sandwiches of which there is an ample supply already. In the shopping areas in and around the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway little difference is found between Palmdale and Lancaster as one drives past the same chain stores and restaurants. According to the Schniepp’s economic report the retail trade and lodging and food service sectors combined for more than 20,000 wage and salary jobs in the Los Angeles portion of the Antelope Valley in 2007. In the same year the big three aerospace companies in Palmdale had a fraction of that number. The numbers in the report don’t take into consideration that one worker may work multiple jobs; that after ending a shift at one chain restaurant they change into the uniform shirt of a second. While many of these jobs exist, with more coming this year, they command some of the lowest average salaries in the Valley – $24,200 in retail trade, $14,000 in lodging and food services. If Palmdale and the whole Antelope Valley is the future, that does not give much to build a future on. The service industry jobs should only be part of the story and not the entire story of what the Valley offers. Conditions do change. Persistence and resilience have their places in the stories. Maybe someday one of those service employees opens their own restaurant to give a spark of independence among the chains. And maybe one day the empty corner at 30th and J Street will have something on it other than weeds. Those would be good stories indeed. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected] . Yes, he has spent time in the Antelope Valley.

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