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#BlockGarcetti: A City United

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  • Hollywood Freeway Offramp, Western Av., Homeless, 2020
  • Old Post Office
  • Homeless, Bus Bench
  • Homeless Trash
  • Homeless on Aetna St. Feb. 2016
  • Van Nuys Boulevard, 2018, at the height of prosperity, before the pandemic.

The possible, rumored appointment of Mayor Eric Garcetti to a post in the Biden Administration has provoked protests at the mayor’s house in Hancock Park, daily, for the last week.

Black Lives Matter and other leftwing groups are angry at him for everything that ails this city. He hasn’t disbanded the police, he hasn’t legalized illegal trash camping on streets, he seems to sympathize with those powers who wear uniforms and carry guns and enforce laws against lawbreakers. Appalling. 

And those who are not protesting, but living here in this city, under the Garcetti years, are also angry. 

We are disgusted with encampments that burn up the parks, that litter the freeways with tents, shopping carts and garbage, that destroy the environment as if it is their right, befouling beaches, streets, sidewalks, bus benches and the urban region. 

We are aghast that a state, whose economy is the seventh largest in the world, cannot manufacture housing to house the unhoused. We are appalled by the sight of squalor everywhere and the abandonment of the most ill, helpless and lost people who are permitted to turn the entire city into a mental institution.

We are bitterly laughing that a new lamppost contest was initiated by Mayor Garcetti in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis. Who would devote city resources to the redesign of streetlights when there are people living on mattresses under all styles of outdoor illumination?

We know 2020 has been a year unlike any other. But we also know that all the other years that lead up to 2020, when Los Angeles was allegedly prosperous, humming along happily, these were the years when this city fell apart, way before a virus arrived.

So we cheer the protesters at his house, and hope the new administration does not promote him to a position undeserved. 

Somehow Eric Garcetti has brought the people of this city together, all the people who disagree, for they all agree that he has destroyed the quality of life in Los Angeles and should not be called to Washington for any high title or undeserved honor.

Vanilla or Chocolate?

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    Today we went to get our first oral Covid-19 test at a free clinic set up near Van Nuys High School along Kittridge St.

    When we drove up the street, a little before 9am, there was already a parking lot in the high school set up with masked attendants, and tented booths marked #1, #2, and #3. There was an ENTER sign to drive up. A woman held up two fingers and we drove up to the second tent.

    Another woman asked us our first question, “Chocolate or vanilla milk?”

    It was strange because we had been instructed to not eat or drink 20 minutes prior to the test. “We are here for Covid tests,” we said.

    “No, no. This is for free meals for students and their families,” she said.

    That cracked us up. We left that area and drove around the block looking for parking.

    There was another large line of people behind St. Elisabeth’s Church. Could that be the Covid testing site? No, no. This was a food bank pantry and they were distributing groceries.

    We went up to Vanowen, and then back down and we parked along Kittridge and saw a CBS-TV van filming another line of people outside of a tent. Was this the Covid-19 test line?

    No, no. This was free flu shots given by USC.

    Then we saw the Covid tent, and the sign, and the RV parked along the sidewalk where you went and signed in.

    After we signed in, another line. Six feet apart waiting.

    A tent. We were ushered in, one at a time. A masked fire department man, standing six or more feet away, instructed how to cough into your elbow, how to unzip the plastic Ziploc, how to take out the long plastic wrapped swab, how to swish it around your mouth, under your tongue, on the roof of your mouth, and then insert it into a chemical container and break off the swab so it would fit into the tube. You then disposed of the litter, dropped your sealed plastic bag into another container, fixed your mask back onto your face to cover your mouth and nose, and then you walked over to the area where they were giving free flu shots.

    Before you could get your anti-flu injection, you had to scan a QR code, which created a webpage which you had to fill out, with your hands, and your poor eyesight, and your mask; fill out the form which asked you to scan your insurance card, asked for your mother’s first name, asked for your email, your home address, your allergies, your date of birth, your telephone number.

    The assistants were nice, helpful. Their boss was too, after she had been interviewed by CBS news. Then you were done with the fill in the information on your smartphone and you sat down in a tent, and took off your sweater, your sweatshirt, all the layers you wore on this blustery day, and then you got your flu shot.

    But the best part of the day was laughing about driving into the wrong area and being asked before anything else if you wanted vanilla or chocolate.

    Furniture Stores, Van Nuys, mid 1950s.

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    One of the fastest growing categories of business in 1950s Van Nuys, CA, was the modest priced furniture retailer.

    The opening of a store on Van Nuys Boulevard was an event for the whole family. Mom, Dad, Janet, Billy and Sally would come down to see dinette sets, bunk beds, and wall-to-wall carpet that would soon cover the San Fernando Valley from Burbank to Hidden Hills.

    Van Nuys was prosperous, white, middle-class, with excellent schools, clean streets, strictly policed, and full of new families in new houses. All these ranch houses and young families needed furniture. And here it was!

    The widening of Van Nuys Boulevard in 1954 to a six-lane wide highway offered builders of furniture stores the opportunity to erect big signs atop big box stores fronting the street.

    In the archives of the Los Angeles Public Library are these photographs taken from the pages of the Valley Times from 1955-61.

    • Photograph caption dated March 21, 1956 reads “Large Gold’s Valley furniture and appliance store will open at the corner of Roscoe and Van Nuys boulevards, Panorama City, with an all-day celebration tomorrow. Gifts, entertainment and free rides for children will be part of festivities.”
    • Photograph caption dated March 9, 1959 reads, “Hub Furniture Stores newest location on Sepulveda and Nordhoff in Van Nuys marks the 14th Hub Store in the greater Los Angeles area. March 14 is the opening day.”
    • Photograph caption dated December 2, 1955 reads “Sign features Taylor’s Furniture Mart, new name selected for store formerly known as Van Nuys Furniture Mart. Company recently opened Reseda branch, known as Taylor’s Grand Central Warehouse.”
    • Photograph caption dated April 7, 1958 reads, “Above shows new Barker Bros. Van Nuys store which formally opened today at 6505 Van Nuys Blvd. Store provides nearly three times the space of the former Barker store across the street at 6502 Van Nuys Blvd. The old store closed Saturday. Barker Bros. has operated a branch in Van Nuys since 1948.”
    • Photograph caption dated April 28, 1961 reads “Special grand opening celebration continues through the weekend at the new Douglas Furniture Mart, 6180 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. The store features a medium priced line of furniture and appliances.”

    The 1958 Barker Brothers store still stands at 6505 Van Nuys Bl. It appears to be empty, along sidewalks where only the saddest and most desperate wander.

    People People Envy

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    In 1961, the Valley Times newspaper ran a contest to promote a new insert, Weekend.  The winners produced a clipping of Miss Weekend Weather and claimed a $10 prize if they were chosen. 

    A photo essay, with pictures of the winners, entitled, “People People Envy” ran on September 3, 1961 in the Valley Times. All the women were courteously named, in the custom of that time, with their husband’s names, i.e., Mrs. Patrick McGarry.

    It was an era when women were not considered complete unless they had a husband. 

    September 3, 1961 

    Mrs. William A. Rygg, 13430 Oxnard St., Van Nuys; Mrs. Walter Schulte, 8720 Hazeltine Ave., Panorama City; Mrs. Brace Gurnee, 11744 Otsego St., North Hollywood; Mrs. Jay David, 7519 Owensmouth Ave., Canoga Park; Mrs. Frank Dalton, 926 Parish Pl., Burbank; Mrs. F. W. Walpole, 17500 Minnehaha St., Granada Hills; Mrs. S. E. Meck, 9132 Yolanda Ave., Northridge; Mrs. Patrick McGarry, 5104 Woodley Ave., Encino; Ruth Fulton, 6619 Wynne Ave., Reseda, and Mrs. William Schmitt, 14201 Remington St., Pacoima. 

    Woodley Park, R.I.P.

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    A man rides his mini bike down a bike path at Lake Balboa in the Sepulveda Basin as a wall of flames approaches Saturday, July 18, 2020. The fire put up a huge cloud of smoke and burned for well over an hour near a model airplane park and along Woodley Avenue. The blaze charred about 4 acres of brush before over 60 firefighters managed to contain it. No structures were damaged and no injuries were reported. (Photo by Mike Meadows, contributing photographer)

    One of the ameliorating joys of moving to Van Nuys in 2000 was escaping, on bike, to Woodley Park, that formerly glorious area of bird sanctuaries, bike paths, grasslands, ponds, and the Japanese Garden.

    Through the years I was so happy to ride through it, to feel the wind and the sun and openness of the park, a place to photograph, and wander and exercise in.

    Since the reign of Mayor Eric Garcetti (Garbageciti) began in 2013, the park has become a homeless encampment, with hundreds trashing it with shopping carts, drugs, needles, garbage and worst of all, starting fires. 

    It seems that every other month there is a massive blaze in Woodley Park, illegal cookouts or arson or just exploding propane tanks, and now the park is an ashen graveyard of nature, just black fields where tall grasses once thrived.

    Why is it “humane” to allow vagrancy, disorder, disrespect and abuse of our parks, our streets and our environment?  We thought we had seen the worse of this city and nation in 2020, but if you want to feel even more gloom, take a saunter over to Woodley Park and witness for yourself the broken fences, the depleted environment, and the still evident trash camps of tents, shopping carts, stolen bikes and litter along Burbank Boulevard.

    And ask yourself what competent and worthy leader would permit his city to become so degraded that even a simple park is too embarrassing to look at?

    Lilac Nights.

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    Last night, I met Ash for the first time. 

    He came over to do some social distance photos. 

    He reviews perfumes on YouTube. I found one he did for DS&Durga’s White Peacock Lily, followed his Instagram and he contacted and hired me.

    He was born in Egypt and came here when he was five. Ash lives with his mother and his 5-year-old son in Reseda. He is divorced and hurt his shoulder playing pool. Slight, medium height, shaved head, he has a kind, soft, shy demeanor.

    Like most these days he has work and no work. I didn’t ask more. Nearly a quarter of the people in Los Angeles have no jobs. But Ash is sadly cheerful. He is devoted to his son and his scents. I asked my subject to wear a mask except when I photographed him.

    We walked around my neighborhood, after 6, when the light was dimming and people were walking dogs and children. Some had masks, others did not. 

    You would never know something malign was afoot in the land.

    There is a mid-century calm on the blocks that radiate off Kittridge west of Kester: Saloma, Lemona, Norwich, Noble, Haynes. The houses are nearly 70 years old. Not rich enough to be torn down, not quite poor enough for decay, they are like their residents: solid, homely, neat, clean, enduring without drama. 

    Except for the walkers, there are hardly any people outside. Nobody gardening, nobody socializing, nobody doing anything social.  

    This area has been dead at night since “I Love Lucy” went off the air.

    There are a couple of houses for sale. I saw one, a not pretty ranch house with an asphalt driveway and crummy design. It’s for sale at $1.2 million. Another fancy one with a vinyl fence in front is just under a million. 

    Who is buying these houses? Not the unemployed or the homeless. 

    One just sold across the street from me, a fancy Z Gallerie style redesigned Spanish home, $1.3 million. It had been remodeled, non-stop, for four years, the owner lavishing last minute changes on the property while vacationing in Turkey and Mykonos. Just when you thought the remodeling was over, a new element was added, like a chandelier in the carport, or double oversized Buddha heads overlooking the hot tub.

    Earlier this week, the new owners moved in. Yesterday, roofers came to pull down all the clay tiles and re-roof it. 

    Some have discretionary income, others line up in their cars to get bags of donated food. 

    Last evening, on the streets around here, the little ranch houses from the 1950s were going into another night. A man was testing paint colors on his garage. Along the sidewalk, beside the house with the American flag and the backyard basketball hoop, an old man with a red bandana mask walked with two little girls and their dog. 

    And Ash from Scent Trails was leaning against a tree, perhaps dreaming of his next lilac infused adventure.