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Top: July 17, 2005 walk around 8th Street, west of downtown LA.
Bottom: April 16, 2005 LA River
Images from Walkinginla.com

Reseda Web links to a gruesome, yet fascinating blog: WalkinginLa.com contains maps and photos of four years worth of delightful strolls around such areas of the city as Vernon, Paramount, Compton and Downey among many, many others.

It’s what LA really looks like before the digital effects.

Actor Stephen Baldwin, 39, who has appeared in such films as “The Sex Monster”, “Mr. Murder” and “Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas”, is now a married father of two girls, 9 and 13, and living in Nyack, NY. He is also a born again Christian, Bush supporter and strongly opposed to the opening of a local porn shop near his home.

According to ABC NEWS Baldwin said, “I’m not on any crusade against pornography. Anybody who is into that, wants to go and do it, God bless them. The problem I’m having is the zoning laws and regulations and all that. In our area where there is only 200 feet required from an elementary school, this particular location plans on having eight video peep show booths.”

But the owner of the shop, Dennis Perera, says he can stay open for 10 years without one customer.

Baldwin’s is battling against what he fears will bring sex crimes and vandalism to his neighborhood. Speaking from tactile experience, crime and sex addiction are indeed real. Yet Baldwin, instead of targeting real world poverty, poor schools, racism, and untreated mental illness–like any good Republican, blames the usual suspects: the media.

PHOTOS: Stephanie Asher, Trainman, FireMonkeyfish.

If the residents of a given area vote to rename their neighborhood,
the LA City Council is going to pay for sign changes, according to the LA Times. Such areas as West Toluca Lake, Toluca Woods, Toluca Terrace, Valley Village, Valley Glen, West Hills and Lake Balboa are examples of districts where homeowners sought to bolster their identity by losing it.

Los Angeles, which built itself up by annexing and conquering Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Woodland Hills, wants to pay to further erase and butcher its history and carve up the city into places with names that mean nothing. Is this an attempt at creating community unity by denying it? Why would the City Council make it easier for the unimaginative to create such inane monickers as “Valley Village”?

Supposedly, it improves the real estate values if a community abandons its historic downtown and invents a new village out of a zip code. When North Hollywood hit the skids in the 1970s and 80s, Valley Village didn’t lend a hand, it got out of town.

Now the downtown areas of Reseda, Van Nuys, Canoga Park and North Hollywood are seeing a rebirth. Will Panorama City rename itself North Van Nuys? And will the divorced and dowdy districts of Ms. West Hills and Mr. T. Woods seek reconciliation with their newly hip and artsy parents?

Ventura, Hazeltine and Saticoy all refer to real persons or places. They mean something. So does Van Nuys. Saying a place is a village or a glen when it isn’t won’t make it so.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/hereinvannuys/sets/72057594053107151/

I was riding my bike, around the Sepulveda Dam Recreational Area, when I made a detour into this Encino neighborhood just west of Balboa, north of Burbank Blvd.

The steep-gabled roofs, pastel colors, and clerestory windows told me that I might have stumbled into somewhere already protected by the Lotta Living police. I saw a sign on Louise Street that said, “Encino Village”… but later investigations on Google turned up nothing informative.

But this quiet and architecturally distinctive relic from the era of Rob and Laura Petrie has to have some history. If anyone can inform me, please do.

PHOTO: Library of Congress

From the pages of the: LA Daily News

Here is a list of upcoming neighborhood council meetings:

Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council will hold a board meeting, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the assembly room at the Villa Scalabrini Retirement Center, 10631 Vinedale Ave., Sun Valley. Call (818) 768-8342.

Neighborhood Council Valley Village, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Colfax Elementary School, 11724 Addison St., Valley Village. Call (818) 766-2932.

Panorama City Neighborhood Council (forming), 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the second-floor meeting room, Mission Community Hospital medical building, 14860 Roscoe Blvd., Panorama City. Call (818) 374-9895.

Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council, 6:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at Van Gogh Elementary School, 17160 Van Gogh St., Granada Hills. Call (818) 360-4346 or see http://www.ghnnc.org.

West Hills Neighborhood Council, 7 p.m. Feb. 1 at the 911 Communication Center, 23001 Roscoe Blvd., West Hills. Call (818) 719-8656 or see http://www.westhillsnc.org.

Chatsworth Neighborhood Council, 7 p.m. Feb. 1 at Lawrence Middle School, 10100 Variel Ave., Chatsworth. Call (818) 464-3511.

West Van Nuys-Lake Balboa Neighborhood Council will hold a meeting and a candidate orientation meeting, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 at Lake Balboa Studios, 7412 Balboa Blvd., Van Nuys. Call (818) 782-6987.

North Hills East Neighborhood Council (forming), 7 p.m. Feb. 6 in the library at Sepulveda Middle School, 15330 Plummer St., North Hills. Call (818) 891-0060.

Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, 7 p.m. Feb. 7 in Room 131 at Shepherd of the Hills Church, 19700 Rinaldi St., Porter Ranch. Call (818) 831-2330 or see http://www.PRNC.org. Call (818) 831-2330.

Van Nuys Neighborhood Council, 7 p.m. Feb. 8 in Room 1B at the Marvin Braude Constituent Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. Call (818) 908-1840.

Winnetka Neighborhood Council, 6:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at Valley Village School, 20830 Sherman Way, Winnetka. Call (818) 648-6219 or see http://www.winnetkanc.com.

Tarzana Neighborhood Council, 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at Tarzana Elementary School, 5726 Topeka Drive, Tarzana. Call (818) 345-1966 or see http://www.tarzananc.org.

Notices of neighborhood council meetings are published every Monday. Send information two weeks in advance, including time, date, location and a phone number. Fax to (818) 713-0058 or send e-mail to dnmetro@dailynews.com.

My next door neighbor Mohammed complained that my overgrown shrub was blocking the view from his driveway and he could not see oncoming traffic as he pulled out. So I called my friend Ali Hassan, a landscaper, to come over and remove the offending plant. I sent an email to my neighbor to confirm that I was taking action. Here is the email:

“Mohammed:

I will remove bush by Saturday, January 21, 2006. Clearly it is a danger to you if it remains. Please understand that I’ve called Ali, who will bring the appropriate tools to complete the mission. Hope you are pleased with the results.”

Imagine that someone in the US government obtained this email. What would they think? Who is safe anymore in this nation from the censors and spies who will certainly misinterpret and confuse the bad guys from the good guys? It is frightening to even publish this entry because we live in a nation where the Constitution is no longer a reliable pillar of our liberty.

NOTE: the above story is completely made-up and created to prove a point.