Thousand Oaks on Kiplinger Magazine's "10 Great Cities to Raise Your Kids"

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In its May 2012 issue, Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine published the article "10 Great Cities to Raise Your Kids." In this article Kiplinger selected 10 safe family-friendly cities using a two-step approach. The first step identified areas with high incomes relative to living costs, a larger percentage of families with kids under 18 and low crime rates. They basically were looking for nice places to raise kids where earnings potential was deemed more than adequate to cover the costs of raising a family.

The 2nd stop was to find specific cities within the top 10 metropolitan areas identified based on education quality, availability of local parks, playgrounds and libraries, and average incomes. Lo and behold, our very own Thousand Oaks made the list at #4!

And here is what Kiplingers said (in italics):

City population: 126,683
Average family income: $138,313
Percentage of families with children: 33.4%
Metro-area spending per student: $5,947
Public playgrounds: 40

Thousand Oaks started life as a planned communit

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June 14, 2012 Thousand Oaks Police Department "City Watch" Alert

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Here is the latest "City Watch" alert from Senior Deputy Tim Lohman of the Thousand Oaks Police Department. If you would like these updates directly from via email, click here for more information.

This latest update is from Senior Deputy, Tim Lohman, who has taken over from Senior Deputy Jim DeSoto, who has moved to another opportunity within the department. Tim has been with the Sheriff’s Office for 18 years and has worked on many assignments within the Sheriff’s Office, from custody to patrol, including working as a D.A.R.E instructor, School Resource Officer, Background Investigator and Public Information Officer, to name a few.  He is looking forward to this role as Crime Prevention Officer and to strengthen the relationship between the residents of Thousand Oaks and the Thousand Oaks Police Department.

Now that summer is in full swing it’s that time of year that people, especially children, look forward to the most. The time when families go on vacation, children are out of school, the weather is warm and inviting, and the beach is calling. It’s a much needed time for children and parents to relax from the demands of school and work. It can be a time when one may let his or her guard down and not be as attentive as he or she should be.

Unfortunately, criminals do not take a break. Many times, criminals may see this as an opportunity to take advantage of the relaxed vigilance. It is important to b

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New Ventura County Clerk and Recorder / Registrar of Voters Website Looks Great

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The Ventura County Clerk and Recorder / Registrar of Voters recently launched a new website that has a really nice new look and feel. Check it out at recorder.countyofventura.org.

Here are some excerpts of what the 3 divisions (County Clerk, Recorder and Elections) of the County Clerk and Recorder office does from the website:

The County Clerk issues marriage licenses, performs civil marriage ceremonies, processes fictitious business name filings, and provides for the qualification and registration of notaries, process servers and miscellaneous statutory oaths and other filings.

The Recorder is responsible for the recording of deeds, deeds of trust, court decrees and other documents affecting title to real property in Ventura County.

The Elections Division conducts all Federal, State, County, school and special district elections in the County, as well as the general municipal elections for all 10 Ventura County cities. It also administers voter registration and outreach programs, among other duties.

I've seen the before and after of the County Clerk and Recorder website and have to say this was a dramatic transformation all around. Many websites receive facelifts on the home page but as you click through to sub-pages find old, outdated pages and broken links dispersed through the site. Not so in this case. Nice job!

The Elections Division section highlights current voter registration information right at the top of the site, which is a nice feature. For example, as of 5/21/12, there are 406,644 registered voters in the County, including 157,539 Democrat, 150,919, Republican, 77,994 Non-Partisan and 20,192 Other.

The 2012 Presidential Primary Election was yesterday. Although the Vote By Mail ballots aren't fully counted yet, the Election Results page indicates 101,986 ballots cast as 2 a.m. this morning (6/6/12); a 25.1% voter turnout. In the 6/3/08 Primary, voter turnout was 29.5% of 392,088 registered voters. Not a good trend to see.

Turnout in the 2012 General Presidential Election s

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Los Angeles is Only The Second Worst Metro Area in Terms of Traffic Congestion!

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Kirkland, Washington based traffic information company INRIX issued its 5th Annual Traffic Scorecard that analyzes and compares traffic congestion in the top 100 U.S. metropolitan markets and the country overall.

The good news was that overall traffic congestion in 2011 dropped about 30% compared to the prior year. The bad news is that this drop probably reflects the overall malaise of our economy...less employment = less commuting.

In any case, while the study did not cover Ventura County per se, it did of course include our Los Angeles neighbors. The good news there is that Los Angeles is not the outright worst place to be in terms of traffic. That illustrious honor belongs to Honolulu.

Here is INRIX's top 10 cities for traffic and related wasted time on the road in 2011:

1) Honolulu (58 hours), 2) Los Angeles (56 hours), 3) San Francisco (48 hours), 4) New York (57 hours), 5) Bridgeport, CT (42 hours), 6) Washington, D.C. (45 hours), 7) Seattle (33 hours), 8) Austin (30 hours), 9) Boston (35 h

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Beautiful, Cool Day in the Conejo Valley After a Rainy Week

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After rain and thunderstorms the better part of the week, blue skies appeared again this beautiful Saturday, April 14, 2012 in the Conejo Valley and throughout Ventura County. From my vantage point, this was a perfect day. Blue skies dotted with some clouds...and temperatures in the low to mid 60s. Just the way I like it. Cold for some, perfect for me!

For a variety of trail and hiking options in the area, CLICK HERE.

Effective Today, Conejo Valley Has Been Renamed Squirrel Valley!

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Herbie the Squirrel smiling for the camera in Thousand Oaks.

Herbie the Squirrel smiling for the camera in Thousand Oaks.

It started with a little squirrel named Herbie. Herbie was known to munch on seeds and plants outside the National Park Service Visitor Center in Thousand Oaks. Herbie is pictured to the right. Cute little guy, isn't he.

Conejo Valley resident Rocky N. Bulwinckel took notice 2 years ago. Rocky, third cousin once removed of Carolyn Lawrence, the voice of Sandy Cheeks, well known squirrel character on SpongeBob SquarePants, was impressed at Herbie the Squirrel's amicable behavior and ability to interact with humans.

Bulwinckel and his neighbors, the Rowe-Dent family of Thousand Oaks, also noticed the proliferation of friendly squirrels throughout the Conejo Valley. In fact, the squirrel population seems to have overtaken the rabbit population, namesake of the Conejo (Spanish for rabbit) Valley! Bulwinckel and the Rowe-Dents decided to pursue a change in light of this squirrely situation.

Local squirrel in celebration mode. Name unknown. We call him Bubba.

Local squirrel in celebration mode. Name unknown. We call him Bubba.

So, after two years petitioning local residents and numerous presentations to the city councils of the Conejo Valley communities of Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills,

Oak Park and Calabasas, it was proclaimed that, effective today, the Conejo Valley is officially renamed the Squirrel Valley!

Here at Conejo Valley Guide we enjoy and cherish bunnies. However, we have already made preparations for the transition to Squirrel Valley Guide.

Please join us by reviewing our new website at www.SquirrelValleyGuide.com!

APRIL FOOLS'!

Happy April Fools' Day!

April Fools' fun in prior years