Category: Uncategorized

According to the Daily News:

“VAN NUYS – Home prices in the San Fernando Valley remained at record levels during November even as sales fell from last year’s strong pace, a Realtors group said Friday.

Last month, the median price for a previously owned home hit the $600,000 mark for the third time this year, jumping 21.2 percent, or $105,000, from a year ago and unchanged from October, said the Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors.”

Those who have owned their houses for more than five years now have seen their original investment double or even triple in value.

Is it possible that the homeowners will prevent developers from building new housing, either single or multi-family, knowing that low supply will keep prices high? No wonder we live in million dollar homes while only steps away people sleep on Sepulveda Boulevard and pick garbage out of containers.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in his yearly “state of the San Fernando Valley” speech Thursday, predicted a taller, denser Los Angeles where residents live in high density apartments along public transport routes. He envisioned a city more like San Francisco and New York, where walking and a vibrant street life make up for the loss of large homes and three car garages.

He has a tough road ahead of him. At a recent block party here in Van Nuys, opponents of the Busway described how much they hate the line. They complained of everything from toxic soil left behind by the original Southern Pacific line to the unsafe route of the bus that crosses 33 intersections at grade level. One resident said her girlfriend works in Pasadena and could ride the Orange Line to the Red Line to the Gold Line easily, but chooses to drive on freeways because she feels safer.

The possible construction of hundreds of multi-family homes along the bus route will no doubt bring many lawsuits from single family homeowners who rightly fear that the apartment dwellers will each have cars that will eventually clog the roads. “Who is going to ride the bus to pick up their groceries?” asked one person at the block party.

Development is not helped by the perception that large companies, such as Costco and Target, continue to build and expand while doing nothing to integrate their enormous box outlets and parking lots into existing neighborhoods. Retail stores are the single worst contributor to weekend congestion and make our entire life traffic hell seven days a week. Some of these retailers should construct housing on top of their 200,000 square foot behemoths.

Mayor Villaraigosa should study the idea of putting a streetcar line down the center of Van Nuys Boulevard and rezoning the street for 8-13 story apartment buildings above retail stores. They were doing this in New York in 1920. It may just work in LA in 2020.

Won’s Coffee Shop, 14440 Gilmore Street, is a delightful find with its “American-Chinese” sign. It is indicative of a time, 50 years ago, when daring white people in search of adventure, beyond burgers and fries, ate such exotic foods as chopped suey and egg rolls… reassured that they would also have “American” choices on the menu.

Much of Gilmore and the surrounding area has a feeling of a small town in the 1950s. There is Kovac’s Pharmacy, with its tile sign and air of single proprietorship, the kind of place where the pharmacist knows your name and a bow-tied “Mr. Wilson”, in wire rimmed glasses, hands out free cherry lollipops to kids with sore throats.

The Van Nuys School is a beautiful, pre-war building constructed when the Golden State really was first among the states in education, well being and progressive experimentation.

An alabaster Bible Church stands like a sturdy beacon of righteousness ready to administer to the hungry faithful.

Eating, walking, praying, learning …..what a strange section of the city this is!

illustration courtesy of www.morrisonbrent.com

Here is a random sampling of some local blogs around the San Fernando Valley:

MAYOR SAM’s SISTER CITY:

I’ve been asked up here in the clouds what I think of the Dodgers signing of Rafael Furcal to a three-year $39 million contract. There’s no question that it’s an obscene amount of money for a guy who isn’t exactly a superstar.

On the bright side though, the contract is only three years. Furcal will probably be productive for the life of the contract. He’s one of the better shortstops in baseball, gets on base at a high rate, has plenty of speed, and he has arguably the best arm for any shortstop in the majors.

2,000 DAYS IN THE VALLEY:

It’s definitely been getting more Mayberry-like in our corner of Van Nuys, partially because our kid is so darned cute … also because of the rash of daytime robberies. This led to a Neighborhood Watch meeting with somewhere between 70 and 100 attendees who listened to our senior lead officer talk about what the LAPD is doing to stop the robberies and who/what to look out for.

Whatever the reason, when it comes to strolling the neighborhood, there’s a lot more stopping, chatting, dog-petting, ball playing, flower picking and baked-goods-exchanging going on lately.

DRAWERSPACE IN A CLUTTERED MIND:

Three dudes broke into three houses in one week and suddenly the entire neighborhood was up in arms. Everyone started talking to each other about it, making sure everyone else knew and telling everyone to watch out for one another (in one of the robberies the guys headed down the street carrying someone’s SAFE with a cover on it and no one blinked. (Typical in L.A.) So that’s how we really met everyone. In about a two week period. After TEN years. . So thanks, you fucking bastards, at least some good came of it.

TABLOID BABY:

While L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa awaits his promised study on whether to end cruelty to elephants at the L.A. Zoo, the Studio City Chamber of Commerce sponsored a startling display of animal abuse and child endangerment at its low-wattage Christmas Parade last night.

Hundreds were waiting in the biting cold for the delayed parade on Ventura Boulevard, when a big, sad, betusked elephant was trotted up the boulevard by two “handlers,” and stopped in front of the Mexicali Restaurant to give perilous rides to a hapless few.

It could have been a scene out of King Kong as mama handler screamed, spit and snarled frantically at frightened children and confused parents, ordering them to move back and onto the sidewalk, lest the unhappy beast go on a rampage!

DOWN WITH TYRANNY

Lieberman [Sen. Joseph Lieberman D-CT] was always a nightmare in politics because he is a nightmare as a person. He’s a hypocrite to the extreme, a pious holier than thou power-player– real mean, always with a big smile but with a dagger behind his back. He’s one of the most furthest right Democrats and the most close to the Bush Regime neo-Cons of any elected Democrat in the country. He’s made a career out of attacking fellow Democrats at the behest of the Far Right, as much a Benedict Arnold as the execrable Zell Miller.

It has been a kind of torture to watch the klller and dictator Sadaam Hussein act out his antics in the courtroom. Both he and his stooges have taunted, teased and laughed as witnesses testified about mass killings and the horrible violence inflicted on Iraqis during his reign.

Why do we allow this sub-human to dictate again in a court of law? He is a prisoner, who must obey the rule of law. He should be immediately shaved so that his masculine beard and hair is stripped off and he is symbollically shorn again of his power. He wears a powerful black suit and white shirt, as if he were still an executive in command. He should wear the stripes of a prisoner or perhaps a pink t-shirt with Tinkerbelle on the front. If he still will not shut up, he must be muzzled and they should put a low voltage wire around his waist so that the judge can electro-shock him every time he acts up.

He tortured and killed millions, and while our own government concocted a phony reason to invade and overthrow him, the end result is clearly in the best interests of justice and humanity.

Courtesy of the San Fernando Valley History Digital Library.

In 1957, the Hidden Hills Development was advertising 3 or 4 Bedroom homes on one acre lots from $27,500 to $47,500.
1 to 5 acre homesites were asking $7,950-$12,500.

You can’t even get a decent car for $12, 500 now.