On Wednesday, Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda sat down with KHTS to discuss the city’s running, the pandemic and its handling, and current events.

Mayor Miranda interviewed with KHTS on Wednesday, discussing how the city keeps itself running, the city’s response to COVID-19, and some current events happening in the area.

“I’ll start at the very core of it. Our city council is made up of five individuals that get elected throughout the city,” said Miranda, explaining the basic functions of his role and the functioning of Santa Clarita’s city council. “We have five of us and we are all equal.”

“We’re the ones that vote on and decide pretty much all the major issues that go on in our city. One of us, each year, is selected to be mayor,” Miranda said. “I was selected to be the mayor this year.”

The mayor then delved into his views on the city’s response to the COVID-19 lockdowns.

“If you look at the children, if you look at the schools, they’ve been impacted dramatically and basically they’ve lost a year of schooling,” Miranda said.

“The health care workers have been impacted dramatically. Could you imagine the stress that they go through having to deal with this terrible disease?” Miranda said. “It’s something you have to be involved in almost constantly as a healthcare worker.”

Miranda went on to discuss income disparities and the pandemic’s effects on these disparities.

“You then have the impact that it has on minority or low-income people, in the sense that a lot of people can afford to have stay-at-home studying, they can afford to have computers, they can afford to have cell phones, they can afford to have Internet, and they can somehow try and keep up with the academics,” Miranda said. “But a lot of people can’t.”

The mayor was asked how well he felt Santa Clarita as a whole responded to COVID-19.

“In terms of how we’ve handled the pandemic, it’s very difficult to say you handled it or anybody handled it very well because the information flow kept changing, and the rules kept changing,” Miranda said. “Until we are open, wear your mask, social distance, wash your hands frequently, use disinfectant profusely, and you’ll be okay.”

Miranda then went on to discuss upcoming events happening in the Santa Clarita Valley.

“Next week, we have the grand opening of the ice station, which we now call The Cube, which is The Cube Ice and Entertainment Center for Santa Clarita,” Miranda said. “The other thing we have is right down the street. The Laemmle Theatre is going to be open soon.”

The Laemmle Theatre location in Newhall is located on the corner of Railroad Avenue and Lyons Avenue and, after its planned opening on April 9, capacity in each auditorium is expected to be at 25 percent with reserved seats before arriving for showtimes being recommended.

The mayor completed his discussion with his views on the coming year.

“Overall, I think this is going to be an exciting year,” Miranda said. “Hopefully the pandemic will allow us to open up in June. And you know the reason we’re able to open up in June is because our citizens have been so compliant. They’ve been so respectful, they’ve done the job that they needed to do, and they deserve to have everything open up pretty soon.”

To watch the full interview with Mayor Bill Miranda, click here.

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