One night a few weeks back, I made a left turn from McBean Parkway onto Orchard Village Road and was accosted the first time by those new gawd-awful giant white mega-reflectors.

I thought for sure some Southwest 737 would confuse our beloved parkway with Burbank Airport and land right on top of us. OMG, what the heck happened to Orchard Village Road? Had a giant pipe burst with a huge emergency repair underway? Was the president’s cavalcade planning a special dictatorial parade from Vallarta Supermarket to Henry Mayo? Some bad movie production temporarily hijacking our beloved street for a drag racing scene? What the heck was going on with this deranged debasement of what had been our city’s most beautiful street?

Orchard Village has long been the most beautiful boulevard in the valley. An elegant, wide boulevard, lined with perfectly trimmed, symmetrical Sycamore trees … a key gateway and beautiful invitation leading to the city center. A graceful, calming drive introducing for all who drive its path to the bucolic vistas of our beloved town.

And then, this mess! A shive in the spine of our city! A confused, on and off again, visually random series of giant reflector butt-paddles sticking up right and left, with indiscernible rhyme or reason, confusing motorists day and night, spanking our eyes to near blindness. Driving the “new” Orchard Village at night has become a 1,000-watt, reflective, rat-maze of a challenge.

This is self-inflicted destruction of public property, ironically installed by the management of said public property. A sort of intentional, infrastructural graffiti depressing all who pass........

© Santa Clarita Valley Signal