AI6YR BenAnother spot near East side of Sequoia Ave 5/19/26 1653 #SandyFire #Simi
Map of area. (Random: Sometime after midnight last night there was some kind of kerfuffle involving Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept (?) lights and sirens ordering an evacuation of Brandeis, but no such order coming from Incident Command... everything was handled by phone call. I believe that is Simi Valley PD territory, but no idea. Anyway, it sounded like a kerfuffle, no idea if evacs happened or not. ) 5/19/26 1657 #SandyFire #Simi
Chatter about working on contingency near Brandeis, and dozer work to isolate spots on east side of Sequoia. 5/19/26 1658 #SandyFire #Simi
Talking about shelter in place order for a convalescent home, they do not want to move anyone, about 200 residents. 5/19/26 1719 #SandyFire #SimiValley #Simi
Fire making a push towards Albertson's Fire Road near Mike Tango Break 5/19/26 1754 #SandyFire #Simi
Darth Osler@ai6yr a grocery chain has a fire road
California is too weird to exist
cmgrowell@autolycos @ai6yr Named after Albertson Ranch and Fred Albertson. Apparently, a car dealership owner in the LA area who bought the ranch from William Randolph Hearst in 1943. Most of it became Westlake Village. Not the same as the grocery store chain. We also have a Hidden Valley around here, but I don't think that is related to the salad dressing.
Peter McDonald@cmgrowell @autolycos @ai6yr I lived in the southwest corner of Westlake in the mid-70's while attending NPHS. One of my simple joys was riding Hidden Valley back and forth between WLV and NP early on a weekend morning before most were up. It was much like slipping into another world. Even then, though most of it was likely owned by the wealthy retired from Hollywood, it outwardly appeared, smelled, sounded and largely operated unchanged from the 1920's.
W6KME@pmcdonald @cmgrowell @autolycos @ai6yr Back then, there was a class of wealthy person who tended to live in homes not all that different from what everyone else lived in, most of Hidden valley was like that. Now, the people who judge their own wealth by sheer square footage in cheaply-built-but-massively-oversized homes have been taking over.
@W6KME @pmcdonald @cmgrowell @autolycos Having stepped into a few of those homes, massively oversized is definitely it. And cheap. And all terribly boring, everyone in white and beige. All dedicated to yelling "LOOK! LOOK AT ALL THIS SPACE I HAVE! I AM RICH! LOOK AT ME!"
@ai6yr @pmcdonald @cmgrowell @autolycos I was still in the building materials biz when that became fashionable. People have no idea how cheap and crappy it really is. It's a grade of materials below what is usually used for affordable apartments. The cheapest of the cheap stuff. Real shit.
@W6KME @ai6yr @pmcdonald @autolycos Some of those homes aren't even occupied. Investor owned. My wife has gone walking with one family who lives in the older Lake Sherwood area and they pointed out a newer home that had never been lived in and which was already starting to show signs of rot and decay. At least they didn't take over the entire area with those types of homes. There are still some fields around, even if they aren't used for much. Probably used more for filming commercials than farming.
Back when I worked in an office in the Westlake Village area I would drive home through Hidden Valley every Friday afternoon. Definitely nicer than sitting in freeway traffic. I cycle through it once in a while, but I'm not as much of a road cyclist. I spend more time on the trails in the hills between there and T.O. They more recently added some bike lanes in the area at least. It is a very popular cycling route.
@cmgrowell @ai6yr @pmcdonald @autolycos One of the large fields, in the east end of the valley, is where my club puts on the world's largest Field Day (ham radio portable operations) demonstration every June. It's a field often used by movie and TV productions for staging equipment, parking for golf tournaments, etc.
I mention it because 2026 is the last year it will be available; plans are to turn the property into McMansions.
@W6KME @ai6yr @pmcdonald @autolycos Oh wow, I hadn't heard that. I know the field you are talking about. I remember seeing it being used for golf tournaments. Owned by the golf club co., I assume. I suppose there is nothing to stop the other land owners in the area from subdividing.
A big area (Ventura Farms) is owned by Murdock of Dole Foods, but he died a year ago, so who knows what will happen there. Ideally, they would donate at least part of it to the open space agencies. There are already some illegal trails from the official trail system that lead into the property. I think the Sherwood golf co. was supposed to make some areas of their property open to the public on the south side, but I don't think that has happened.
@cmgrowell @ai6yr @pmcdonald @autolycos That area, called Dicken's Patch by locals was also a personal property of David Murdock, managed by Sherwood Development Corp, not the country club. I don't know whether SDC is selling just that property, or if SDC itself has been sold after Murdock's death, but we were given a heads-up that this was the last year for our public event.
@W6KME @ai6yr @pmcdonald @autolycos Ah, ok. I'm seeing that SDC is still owned by Castle & Cooke (Dole), but the country club is now owned by Caruso. Maybe he'll build a mall back there.