SB 79 is a new law, authored by State Senator Scott Wiener, approved by the legislature, and recently signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, to allow the state to overrule local zoning laws and permit the construction of multi-family housing on lots which are zoned for single family housing when these properties are within a half or quarter mile of a bus or light rail stop.
In Los Angeles, the law will allow much denser and higher development along not only wide boulevards, but inside old, intact, single-family streets, “side streets” which never had apartments or multi-unit housing.
Tiered density: The allowable height and density for projects are determined by the quality of the transit stop and the project’s proximity to it.
Tier 1: Applies to projects near high-frequency commuter rail or heavy rail transit, like BART and LA Metro.
Tier 2: Applies to projects near light rail and bus rapid transit lines.
Citywide MapSFVSepulveda/VictoryBuilding Heights and DensityVan Nuys Bl
Along Sepulveda and Van Nuys Boulevard the proposed zoning map looks like purple bullet holes that radiate from transit stops. These circles are centered around the transportation stops and take no consideration into the historic or local character of any neighborhood.
For example, I live on Hamlin Street which is a “Tier 2” zone because we are within a ¼ of Sepulveda Boulevard bus stop. My street, built on old walnut orchards, from 1936 onwards, is lined with palm trees, and then curves along with oak trees. The street has two-hour parking because of its proximity to Van Nuys High School.
If the law succeeds, my section of Hamlin Street would allow 65-foot-high buildings (six and half stories).
But the part of Hamlin Street a few hundred feet east from me would remain single family.
West of Sepulveda, south of Victory, is the beautiful and often filmed Orion Avenue with large colonial style houses planted with rose bushes and ranch fences, the location for many commercials seeking “a typical American street” that doesn’t exist anymore. With SB 79, the east side of the street could be obliterated with apartments that destroy the very beauty residents and film makers pay dearly for.
Mr. and Mrs. Audie Murphy and son, 6233 Orion Ave. Van Nuys, CA, 1953
Yesterday, I had a real life encounter of what Hamlin St. and other locations nearby could become when I parked my car near 3052 West Boulevard in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, east of Culver City. I was there to visit a new, multi restaurant creation, Maydan Market.
This area was given an economic boost by the Expo Line, a light rail system that connects downtown with Santa Monica. The good parts are investment, cleaner streets, the lowering of crime and the raising of the cultural and civic activities.
The ugly parts are the disfiguring, ad hoc apartments that pop up on formerly coherent streets of 1920s bungalows. My eyes hurt looking at 3045 West Boulevard, a black and gray box suspended over a cinderblock faced garage, with a massive four story high open-air staircase on the side of the building. It looms like a monster over the street, with no respect or sensitivity to the vernacular that had existed here for 90 years.
3052 West Bl.3052 West Bl.3052 West Bl.
Am I a hypocrite for decrying liberalized zoning that will change my backyard? Yes, I am. Sort of.
This blog has argued for years for the construction of new, multi-family buildings to replace unused parking lots behind abandoned shopping centers, or where there is a sea of asphalt like the Orange Line parking area along Sepulveda which was constructed for thousands of vehicles and is now empty. I have fought for the idea of an architectural, coherent, community wide style that would incorporate history and embrace modernism but do it without destroying but enhancing the community of Van Nuys.
And I’ve always cast a cold, unforgiving, forensic eye on the political neglect of Van Nuys by elected officials who seem to always be performing social media acts of kindness for oppressed groups while neglecting the needs of residents in this district.
Along Sepulveda at LA Fitness.Victory Bl. east of Sepulveda, Van Nuys, CA 5/10/186811 Sepulveda
There are blighted buildings, such as this one at 7101 Sepulveda, that have been empty for years, packed with derelicts, unable to be demolished, yet crying out for replacement. As a bitter pill, the residents in the tree lined, charming, quiet streets behind must now expect multi-family housing to replace their 1940s ranchettes.
7101 Sepulveda Bl.7101 Sepulveda (1967)
What do our elected leaders in Sacramento do with the quandary of building more housing? They embrace a fantasy of destroying single family homes and backyards.
Will your neighbors and you, the elderly couple in the corner house, desire to ride buses (with homeless, drug addicts, crime?) and come home, late at night, from a bus stop on Sepulveda, and enter a new world of yet more cars, loud music, marijuana, dumped mattresses, and YouTube/TikTok/OnlyFans influencers smoking on the balcony next door? I doubt it.
Is that the paradise of tomorrow? Circles on a map, purple splotches of political malfeasance, indicating nothing but more mayhem, disorder and chaos.
I hope I’m long gone, either from life or Van Nuys, before this happens.
Much of commercial Van Nuys is in the worst condition of its 115-year-old history. There are empty stores, enormous parking lots with no cars, and trash camping everywhere.
What could replace all this and what kind of architecture would protect us from hot sun and occasional rain? The answer might come from Southern Europe.
Last year I spent five days in Turin, Italy, a metropolitan city of 841,600 in the NW of the country.
It has remarkable architecture, which was mostly built in the 18th and 19th Century by the Savoy Family in a unified, Neo-classical style.
The city has a series of arcades and long, shaded passageways, that protect from rain and sun. The arches along the ground floor provide a unifying effect that harmonizes all the buildings and anoints the urban environment with a regal and practical building style.
There are numerous courtyards, public and semi-private, which are encased by three and four story buildings.
East of the 405, south of Erwin, west of Sepulveda, north of the Orange Line are 12 acres of asphalt paved parking which was constructed in 2004 by Metro Los Angeles to accomodate a large of amount of parked cars that never arrived. These vehicles were, illogically, imagined to be driven by those bus riders who would then park their cars and take the Orange Line!
For many years, the car dealers of Van Nuys Boulevard rented the parking lots of Metro, in an obscene arrangement of prioritizing automobile storage over the needs of Angelenos who are ravenous for housing, parks and other uses of land which are not parking lots.
The auto dealers’ cars are gone. But the parking lots, weed-filled, empty, and providing nothing of aesthetic or functional use to the community, just sit and decay in the sunshine.
The environment around the parking lots is lovely to the north where the frequently filmed street of Orion Avenue presents an imaginary vision of Americana with its ye olde New England architecture, picket fences, and abundant rose bushes.
But Sepulveda is a mess. CVS (Erwin/Sepulveda) is a rundown, ugly, homeless encampment drug store, on its last legs, with empty shelves and anything on the shelves frequently swiped by shoplifters.
The 405 is the noisy, polluting, cancerous fact of life that provides deafening, daily helicopter, truck and automobile noise and air pollution to the community. It has been blocked out by sound walls to assure our waning sanity.
And to the south of the site where the empty parking lots sit, is the Orange Line Bus Route, soon to be turned into electric light rail line when a new transportation line is completed connecting Van Nuys Boulevard to Pacoima.
Everywhere there is trash, homeless, RVs, illegal dumping, tent cities, discarded fast food wrappers. The usual tale of Van Nuys and greater Los Angeles.
What can be done to transform 12 empty acres into something that enhances and uplifts our community instead of just using it for exploitation and degradation?
A possible answer is a residential area with parkland. These would be architecturally designed and environmentally friendly, and become an asset because their residents would assist in the care of this new neighborhood.
Family Run Parks
If the city were to devise a plan to have a family (which lived in one of the homes) run the upkeep of the park for a salary, based on a performance review, then it is more likely that the parkland would be cleaner, safer, and better maintained, unlike the sickeningly disgusting public parks that bring Los Angeles ridicule and shame like MacArthur and Westlake.
Having the people who use parks or schools clean the parks or schools they use, is something that the Japanese practice in their spotless country. It is an imported idea that could bring an upgrade to our city.
In any case, the transformation of the 12 acre parking lots should be done with sensitivity, care, and with the idea of providing recreation, housing, shade, and pleasant surroundings within a walk of public transportation.
To make these architectural renderings a reality, there will need to be rules, enforced rules, about what kinds of behavior will not be tolerated. This will perhaps be the most difficult part of the experiment, for we are far down on the road to hell in a city of red light runners, loud music, all night parties, marijuana moms, pizza boxes and McDonalds thrown along the curb, and the vagrants who ignite fires in the parks. To see discarded sofas and mattresses on the grass, or shopping carts with cans and bottles, and refrigerators on balconies will obliterate the possibilities of paradise.
In all the days since the disastrous fires destroyed vibrant and sparkling communities of people and their houses and businesses in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, flat and socially unpopular Van Nuys, miles from any combustible forests, sat silent, its empty parking lots and vacant stores along Van Nuys Boulevard mute and abandoned, its daytime as empty and lifeless as its nighttime.
You live here and just like people anywhere yearn for the same normal things that civilized places provide: safety, cleanliness, affordability, and lawfulness. But all you get are sirens, speeding cars, helicopters at 2am, Woodley Park set ablaze monthly.
After nearly 25 years here I see nothing but decline in the environment around Van Nuys.
3/5/18 Bessemer at Cedros.Van Nuys, CA3/5/18 Bessemer at Cedros.Old Post Office
The same neglected mini-mall that I complained about in 2009 is still the same trash strewn dump it always was. Its owner used to live in Bel Air. He complained about my criticism when all I asked him to do was hire a $10 an hour worker to sweep the sidewalk weekly and install a security light on the side of the building so people didn’t sleep and urinate and tag the walls.
The stores that line Van Nuys Boulevard from Vanowen to the Oxnard are largely empty, many are built with gigantic parking lots behind them that are also empty, parking for thousands of cars that once shopped here, but those shoppers have left or died.
The Valley Municipal Building is where CD 6 Councilwoman Imelda Padilla reigns over the neglect and the ugliness. She replaced Nury Martinez who had to resign in disgrace after she was recorded by covert means saying ethnically insulting things about other Angelenos. Martinez came after Cardenas who went to Congress where he now serves.
Cardenas, Martinez, Padilla. It sounds like a nursery rhyme with its melodic Spanish surnames. It might well be a soundtrack set to an ever- present social disaster of Van Nuys with its hundreds of homeless sleeping in the plaza, along the Orange Line, or in the parking lot of the CVS on Erwin Street.
How is it that the so-called heart of the San Fernando Valley, the place that once bustled with prosperity and good infrastructure, including light rail and neatly tended homes and businesses, has been allowed to die for so many decades?
Victory Bl. east of Sepulveda, Van Nuys, CA 5/10/18
Is it callous to also point out that Van Nuys is less prone to fire than other areas that have boomed in recent decades? Would Van Nuys Boulevard, lined with 13-story tall Park Avenue apartment houses be a higher fire risk than thousands of wooden McMansions shoved up canyons in Bel Air, Brentwood, Malibu and the Palisades?
And when Van Nuys gets light rail, might it be possible to imagine a walkable, pleasant, less expensive part of Los Angeles where the vaunted word diversity can be used equitably as all types of inclusion would occur with young, old, well-off, not so well-off, living in nice apartments with patrolled and orderly parks and streets?
Perhaps some of the displaced people would live in well-maintained buildings if such a thing existed in Van Nuys.
With so much focus on rebuilding Los Angeles a good place to start an experiment in civilization would be Van Nuys. It’s the only corpse that has been screaming for rescue for decades.
2018 fire in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, Lake Balboa, CA.
Project 2028: The Olympic Games in Los Angeles
“In its biggest decision on homelessness in decades, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places. The justices, in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, overturned lower court rulings that deemed it cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment to punish people for sleeping outside if they had nowhere else to go.”- NPR June 28, 2004
Mayor Karen Bass immediately criticized the Supreme Court decision and said Los Angeles will not “go backwards” [slogan of the campaign] in arresting vagrants. Nearly $1 billion dollars is allocated for citywide homeless reduction programs.
On August 11, 2024 the city of Paris officially handed off the Olympics to the next host city, Los Angeles, CA which will have the honor in 2028.
Along one area of Hollywood Boulevard, sidewalks which had dozens of homeless tents in early August were suddenly cleared of all tents on August 11, 2024.
The solution for homelessness in Los Angeles must be tied to the Olympics. We must find a way to host the Olympics every four years for the next two hundred years.
A few times a week, homeless encampment fires burn in the Sepulveda Basin near the area of the 405 Freeway, Burbank, Woodley and Victory Blvds.
In 2028, some Olympic events will be held in the ravaged, trash filled park. (cough, cough).
Here is a report excerpted from the Los Angeles Fire Department:
CONTAINED – Grass Fire; INC#0254; 07:00AM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; 20 LAFD ground-based Firefighters took less than three hours to fully contain the fire to twenty (20 ) acres of light grass north of Burbank Boulevard and west of the San Diego (I-405) Freeway. No infra/structure damage. No injury. Fire cause under investigation. ; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 E288 E39 E88 RA39 T88 WT88; CH8; 17; Brian Humphrey
Update #BurbankFire Brush Fire; INC#0826; 02:35PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; 69 LAFD Firefighters have stopped all forward progress of the fire via largely defensive firefighting operations by ground and air, with the fire held at 75 (Seventy-Five) acres of vegetation northwest of the intersection of Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. No infra/structure damage. No injuries. #LATraffic: All traffic lanes (northbound and southbound) on Woodley Avenue between Burbank Boulevard and Victory Boulevard will remain closed until LAFD operations are complete. Unknown ETO. Travelers, please avoid the area by use of an alternate route.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 CE59 CM40 CM42 DZ41 DZ45 E100 E105 E239 E288 E290 E39 E73 E83 E88 E90 EM14 H0D H3 H4 H5 H6 HA3 HA4 HA5 HA6 HE2 RA39 T39 T88 T90 WT88; CH5; 17; Brian Humphrey
Brush Fire; INC#0826; 12:50PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; PRELIM: LAFD ground and air response to currently five (5) acres of vegetation burning near the intersection of Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. Slow rate of spread. No current infra/structure threat. As a precaution, the ‘Apollo 11 Model Aircraft Field’ was calmly evacuated. No injuries reported. #LATraffic: Closure of all traffic lanes (northbound and southbound) on Woodley Avenue between Burbank Boulevard and Victory Boulevard until LAFD operations are complete. Unknown ETO. Travelers, expect congestion and use an alternate route; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 BC14 E100 E239 E288 E290 E39 E83 E88 E90 EM14 H3 H5 H6 HA3 HA5 HA6 RA39 T39 T88 T90 WT88 + Park Rangers.; CH5; 17; Brian Humphrey
CONTAINED Grass Fire; INC#0779; 12:54PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; It took 34 firefighters just over an hour to extinguish the three-acre grass fire using hand tools, hose lines, LAFD Dozers, and water tender. No reported injuries. Cause under investigation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 CE84 DZ45 E100 E288 E39 E83 E88 HE1 HE5 RA100 T88 WT88; CH8; 18; Nicholas Prange
Grass Fire; INC#0779; 11:47AM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; Firefighters are on scene of a grass fire, approximately two acres in size.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 DZ45 E100 E288 E39 E83 E88 HE1 HE5 RA100 T88 WT88; CH8; 18; Nicholas Prange
CONTAINED Brush Fire; INC#1688; 10:00PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; Firefighters made a quick direct attack on the vegetation fire, and snuffed it out at approximately one acre (updated estimate after the flames were out). It took 24 firefighters approximately 25 minutes to extinguish the flames. No reported injuries. Cause under investigation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 E100 E239 E288 E290 E39 E7 E81 E83 E90 EM14 H0B H0F H3 H4 H5 HA3 HA4 HA5 RA39 T39 T88 T90 WT88; CH8; 18; Nicholas Prange
Grass Fire – Contained; INC#1847; 11:16PM; 5600 N Woodley Av; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; Firefighters have successfully surrounded and extinguished approximately two acres of brush in the Sepulveda Basin. Originally burning as two separate small fires, careful coordination allowed them to merge before crews flanked and extinguished all remaining flames; several fire companies remain at the scene to address hot spots and ensure no further threat remains. No injuries, cause is under investigation. Nothing further.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 E288 E39 E88 E90 H6 HA6 RA88 T88 WT88; CH8; 17; Lyndsey Lantz
Fully Contained – Brush Fire; INC#1388; 07:45PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; This wildland blaze, known as the “Burbank Fire”, has been fully contained at 2 1/4 (2.25) acres. All LAFD helicopters have been released, and ground-based LAFD operations will continue tonight to monitor and fully extinguish any active flame within the perimeter. There has been no infra/structure damage, no evacuation and no injuries. Closure of all traffic lanes (eastbound and westbound) Burbank Boulevard between Woodley Avenue and the 405 Freeway will continue tonight until LAFD operations are complete. Unknown ETO. Travelers are asked to continue to avoid the area, expect congestion and consider an alternate route. The specific cause of the fire has yet to be determined.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 CE83 DZ45 E100 E288 E290 E39 E83 E88 E90 EM17 H3 H4 H6 HA3 HA4 HA6 HE5 RA100 RA83 RA88 T88 T90 WT88; CH8; 17; Brian Humphrey
Update Contained – Brush Fire; INC#1388; 07:20PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; A series of precise LAFD helicopter water drops have contained the perimeter of the (yet to be determined size) blaze in thick underbrush of the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, south of the intersection of Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue. 32 LAFD Firefighters will continue their largely defensive ground-based operations tonight to fully extinguish all active flame within the perimeter. There has been no infra/structure damage, no evacuation and no injuries reported. Closure of all traffic lanes (eastbound and westbound) Burbank Boulevard between Woodley Avenue and the 405 Freeway will continue tonight until LAFD operations are complete. Unknown ETO. Travelers are asked to avoid the area, expect congestion and consider an alternate route. An investigation into the specific cause of the fire will commence upon full fire extinguishment.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 CE83 E100 E288 E290 E39 E83 E88 E90 EM17 H3 H4 H6 HA3 HA4 HA6 RA100 RA83 RA88 T88 T90 WT88; CH8; 17; Brian Humphrey
Brush Fire; INC#1388; 05:44PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3RG8PQg; #SepulvedaBasin; PRELIM: LAFD ground and air response in largely defensive operations to less than one (1) acre of grass burning on the southeast corner of Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. Moderate rate of spread with light winds at 10-15 MPH out of the southwest. No current infra/structure threat. No evacuation. No injuries reported. Closure of all traffic lanes (eastbound and westbound) on Burbank Boulevard between Woodley Avenue and the 405 Freeway until LAFD operations are complete. Unknown ETO. Travelers, expect congestion and consider an alternate route.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 CE83 E100 E288 E290 E39 E83 E88 E90 EM17 H3 H4 H6 HA3 HA4 HA6 RA83 T88 T90 WT88; CH5; 17; Brian Humphrey
CONTAINED Brush Fire; INC#1074; 04:51PM; 6100 N Woodley Av; https://bit.ly/3JmOXNT; #SepulvedaBasin; Firefighters responded to the archery range, where a two-acre brush fire burned nearby, stoked by sustained winds. Employees and patrons of the archery range were evacuated temporarily while firefighters went to work to contain the flames. Ultimately, it took 41 firefighters an hour and 19 minutes to contain the vegetation fire to approximately two acres, which consumed grass, brush, and trees. Evacuation has been lifted. No reported injuries. Cause under investigation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 CM40 CM42 E100 E288 E290 E39 E81 E83 E88 E90 EM14 EM17 H0B H0C H3 H4 H7 HA3 HA4 HA7 RA88 T88 T90 UR88 WT88; CH8; 17; Nicholas Prange
Grass Fire; INC#1074; 03:32PM; 6100 N Woodley Av; https://bit.ly/3JmOXNT; #SepulvedaBasin; Approximately two acres of grass burning with 10 mph winds (gusts 20-30 mph) moving to the southeast (near the archery range).; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 CM40 CM42 E288 E39 E83 E88 T88; CH8; 17; Nicholas Prange
CONTAINED Grass Fire; INC#0499; 10:11AM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3aPmUFx; #SepulvedaBasin; Thirty-two LAFD firefighters (by ground only), plus LAFD Crew 3-A volunteer hand crew, anchored the fire and advanced hose lines around both flanks, while allowing the dam to be a fire break to stop the head of the fire. It took 57 minutes to stop all forward progress, limiting the burned area to two acres. Crews will remain on scene to ensure there are no hot spots or smoldering material remaining in the fire’s footprint. No structures damaged. No reported injuries. Cause under investigation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 CW3A DT1 DZ45 E288 E39 E8138 E83 E88 HE1 T88 WT88; CH8; 17; Nicholas Prange
CONTAINED Brush Fire; INC#0749; 10:59AM; 6300 N Balboa Bl; https://bit.ly/3tgQyeW; #SepulvedaBasin; Crews held the fire to approximately one-eighth of an acre in less than 30 minutes. No structures damaged. No reported injuries.; FS 100; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC15 BC17 BP99 CM20 CM22 CM40 CM42 E100 E239 E273 E290 E39 E64 E66 E73 E83 E88 E90 E94 EM15 H0B H0C H1 H3 H4 H7 HA1 HA3 HA4 HA7 RA100 SO1 T39 T73 T90 WT88; CH8; 17; Nicholas Prange
Brush Fire; INC#0749; 10:34AM; 6300 N Balboa Bl; https://bit.ly/3tgQyeW; #SepulvedaBasin; Small vegetation fire (approximately 50′ x 100′), slow moving, in the Lake Balboa Park area with no structures threatened. Crews are making good progress, getting hose lines around it, and do not anticipate further spread. ; FS 100; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC15 BC17 BP99 CM20 CM22 CM40 CM42 E100 E239 E273 E290 E39 E64 E66 E73 E83 E88 E90 E94 EM15 H0B H0C H1 H3 H4 H7 HA1 HA3 HA4 HA7 RA100 T39 T73 T90 WT88; CH5; 17; Nicholas Prange
Grass Fire – Contained; INC#1561; 06:40PM; 6066 N Woodley Av; https://bit.ly/3JmOXNT; #SepulvedaBasin; 26 ground based LAFD Firefighters contained the fire to two (2) acres of grass and vegetation (7:06 PM) . No structures. No injury. Crews will remain at scene for at least two hours to complete mop up. Fire cause under investigation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 E100 E288 E83 E88 E90 RA83 RA88 T88 WT88; CH8; 13; Brian Humphrey
Knockdown – Brush Fire; INC#1297; 06:04PM; 5600 N Woodley Av; https://bit.ly/3JTkDLa; #SepulvedaBasin; Despite hot weather and a steady 7 mph wind from the south, a well-coordinated LAFD ground and air response with the assistance of Park Rangers, held flames to three (3) acres of grass and brush on the west side of Woodley Avenue north of Burbank Boulevard. No injury. No structures. Fire cause under investigation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 E100 E239 E288 E290 E39 E81 E83 E88 E90 EM14 H2 H4 H7 HA2 HA4 HA7 RA88 RA90 T39 T88 T90 WT88 + Park Rangers; CH5; 17; Brian Humphrey
Brush Fire; INC#1297; 05:15PM; 5600 N Woodley Av; https://bit.ly/3JTkDLa; #SepulvedaBasin; PRELIM: LAFD ground and air response to a grass fire extending into brush on the west side of Woodley Avenue north of Burbank Boulevard. No structure threat.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; AO1 AO2 BC10 BC14 E100 E239 E288 E290 E39 E81 E83 E88 E90 EM14 H2 H4 H7 HA2 HA4 HA7 RA88 RA90 T39 T88 T90 WT88; CH5; 17; Brian Humphrey
Contained – Brush Fire; INC#1311; 07:18PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3aPmUFx; #SepulvedaBasin; Thanks to precise water drops from a pair of quickly arriving LAFD helicopters, forward progress of the fire/s has been stopped in just 50 minutes. The 40 ground-based LAFD firefighters are finalizing control of the perimeter of the blaze with hand tools and hose lines. No final acreage estimate is available. No injury. No structures damaged. Fire cause under investigation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 BC14 E100 E109 E239 E288 E290 E81 E88 E90 E99 EM14 H1 H2 HA1 HA2 RA83 T39 T88 T90 WT88; CH5; 17; Brian Humphrey
Brush Fire; INC#1311; 06:28PM; 15700 W Burbank Bl; https://bit.ly/3aPmUFx; #SepulvedaBasin; PRELIM: LAFD ground and air response to several spot fires in volatile light-to-medium density brush south of Burbank Boulevard. No road closure. No structure threat. No evacuation.; FS 88; Batt 10; Valley Bureau; Council District 6; BC10 BC14 E100 E109 E239 E288 E290 E81 E88 E90 E99 EM14 H1 H2 HA1 HA2 RA83 T39 T88 T90 WT88; CH5; 17; Brian Humphrey
Someone recently was very excited because there is a new slate of young, female, diverse people who are running for the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council. She is one of the contestants and wanted some input on what I thought about the VNNC.
I rolled my eyes. Nothing good has ever, ever come out of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council, and if you don’t believe me, take a walk up Van Nuys Boulevard today and see the boarded up shops, the homeless, the filth and the neglect.
Maybe I should expand that to the office of Nury Martinez, a city councilwoman who has been in that job for some five years and has presided over the further decline and frightening expansion of homelessness that plagues our city and our district in particular.
Often young aspirants seeking election will roll out first, those labels which they think matter. You are queer, you are a woman, you came from Honduras. And you are under 30. That last designation is the most important because you have “fresh ideas”, ideas which only those people born after 1989 have thought of. And you care, you really care about this community because you are queer, you are woman and you came from Honduras.
And you are also against: exploitation, triggering, cruelty, bigotry, and policies that discriminate against homelessness, against the undocumented, and against those who have been convicted of crimes and are unjustly punished.
Fine. All fine. All open for debate, though you may not ever agree to debate these issues because you are right and I should know you are right.
But I have one thing to say to you, candidate for political office: I don’t care about your identity.
I know you are angry because growing up you wanted role models and when you looked on TV or in the movies you were given maids and gang-bangers instead of entrepreneurs and philosophers. Pity. You didn’t model yourself after Marsha Brady or Samantha Stephens so you went into a tailspin.
Your identity is your fortress, your crowing achievement, because, after all, you’ve worked hard to acquire that DNA.
But running on a platform of DNA, gender, or preference labels doesn’t stop crime, bad schools, illegal dumping, trash camping, random violence.
Woodley Park.3/5/18 Bessemer at Cedros.3/5/18 Bessemer at Cedros.
The Cuban-American dad who lives with his daughter near Burbank and Kester takes his Sunday morning off to ride bikes with his daughter through a trash-filled bike path along the Orange Line. Does he care if the representative who neglects this park is Latina? No, he cares if the park is clean and safe.
The Guatemalan born, American history professor who takes the bus from Van Nuys to teach at CSUN stands at a bus shelter where a homeless person has placed six shopping carts and has made a home there for three months.
The lesbian mom from Mexico who lives on Vanowen with three school age children still has to drive them from her bad school district to a better one five miles away and she helps, unwittingly, to contribute to traffic and school segregation. Would it matter if she were Irish-American, born in Indianapolis and married to a man?
Illegally parked cars on Victory during rush hour.Empty, weed-filled parking lot within walking distance of mass transit and downtown VN.Homeless.
The broadcasting of identities is like a theater of the absurd because it presents a chimera, an illusion of a person who comes into the public realm advertising her external labels instead of presenting her internal ideas.
I’m reminded me of Jussie Smollet’s words after creating his hoax, he used his “gay, black” identities to hide the true nature of his fabrications. By trotting out the ingredients on his label he sought the mantle of believability and righteousness. But the content of his true character remains.
I don’t care about your identity. I care about facts, about telling the truth, about pursuing equal justice under the law. And that applies to aspirants for political office as well.
The two little boys, Diego, 5, and Eddie, 7, who live on Delano, whose grandparents emigrated from El Salvador, cannot ride their bikes down to Bessemer, two blocks away, because 20 homeless people, some drug addicts, some mentally ill, live on the street there.
If Diego and Eddie were named Diego and Eddie Moskowitz and they couldn’t ride their bikes in their own neighborhood would their ethnic identities matter more?
Bus Bench: Sepulveda at Victory.Sepulveda Bl.Along Sepulveda at LA Fitness.
I don’t care about your identity. Nury Martinez has a great duo of identities: female and Latina and really, truly, what does that matter for the well-being of Van Nuys?
Being a Latina, doesn’t make you a more effective thinker, leader, community organizer any more than being a Canadian from Haiti does.
Your identity won’t bring in new investment, it won’t appeal to developers, it won’t clean up the streets, it won’t lessen traffic, it won’t purify the air, it won’t make food healthier.
Van Nuys needs a dose of old fashioned law and order and political and police muscle to let the law-abiding citizens of this district know that we will not fall apart and disintegrate into factions of identities who then will be unable to come together to work as a community to fight our common problems.
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Here in Van Nuys 
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