Tag: Environment

Cloudy Morning: Van Nuys.

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Cloudy Morning: Van Nuys

Under the cover of clouds, I walked along Kester, Sylvan, Van Nuys Blvd., Aetna, and Oxnard streets this morning.

Kester is well-known as perhaps the filthiest street in Van Nuys, with trash-filled curbs, wrecked vehicles, and yards full of debris and neglect. Slumlord owners and indifferent managers create much of the property abuse. The tenants, amazingly, do not. It is not the fault of a renter if a building fails to repair a damaged roof, or if a mini-mall cannot sweep its curb daily.

Sylvan, between Kester and Van Nuys Blvd., is a mixture of older homes, 1950s and 60s apartments, and new construction. Some of the buildings are quite neat and tidy, while others have couches, garbage cans, and discards strewn about.

Van Nuys Blvd. is neither broken down or upscale. It is just simply unpleasant. There is nowhere good to eat; nothing fashionable to buy. Cars speed by, on a six-lane street, under the daytime burning sun and nighttime orange glow of the cobra lamps.

Most of the stores are for bail, legal services, pot dispensaries and do-it-yourself salvation/damnation churches.

A very red-hot dog stand is a bright note on Erwin and VNB right across from the Mall. An apron clad, Asian woman working there, seeing my camera, came outside and motioned me to not photograph the building. Business must be very good there to turn away free publicity.

Aetna and Bessemer, two streets that parallel the Busway, are industrial and contain machine shops, car repair and other functions involving grinding, grease and garbage.

On Aetna at Vesper, there is an elegant, two-story, Art Deco, 1930s structure that must have served some governmental function seven decades ago. It stands amidst the vast asphalt car lots and waiting braceros.

All that is missing from this environment is a plan and the money to remake it. Kandahar, Islamabad and Baghdad stand in front of the line, ahead of Van Nuys, at Uncle Sam’s bank.

Plowing Asphalt into Green Spaces.

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Two big parcels of land on Van Nuys Blvd., encompassing at least three acres, have come into being now, due to the demolition of the Keyes Mercedes building at Chandler and the emptying of Rydell Chevrolet on the NW corner of Burbank.

To see these lots cleared is to appreciate the enormity of space they once occupied, and offers urban dreamers the chance to imagine how these land areas could be utilized for greener businesses.

According to my friend Dick Carter, a restaurant real estate broker, parking is always a problem. The Keyes and Rydell lots offer possibilities for integrating parking, dining and agriculture.

An organic diner or restaurant could grow herbs, citrus, vegetables, and sustainable plants on these lands, products grown locally and freshly right here in Van Nuys. People would sit outside, in gardens, under trees, and dine on foods grown on Van Nuys Blvd!

Government tax breaks, modifications in zoning, and enlightened planners could transform our environment, our neighborhood and our health.

And Steve Weiss at Capital (818-905-2400) is leasing the Rydell space.

River of Plastic/ Rio de Plastico

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Riding my bike around the Sepulveda Basin today, I was startled and sickened to see a river lined with trash.

Plastic bags literally covered every branch, every limb, and every single tree along both sides of the banks; devouring, like some gruesome movie monster, nature.

The amount of garbage is so extreme, so massive, so overpowering, that the camera’s lens is unable to completely capture the visual tragedy.  Like Haiti after its quake, a photographer must decide whether to shoot wide angle, thus diminishing the particular atrocity, or to go close-up, possibly denying the vast destruction all around. I shot these images both far and close to record the appalling filth and criminal neglect of the river.

There are other sections of the LA River, formerly encased in concrete, now undergoing naturalization. This area of the river, which meanders gently through the San Fernando Valley acts as a flood basin and wildlife preserve.

The City of Los Angeles has abrogated its moral and legal responsibility by allowing and ignoring this environmental catastrophe.

One weekend of box office receipts, from the theaters showing AVATAR in the nation of Moldavia, would probably be enough to pay for a LA River clean-up. Two weeks of Ellen DeGeneres’ paychecks might finance the annual salary of 20 city workers assigned to protect the river. 1/44th of suspected comedian Conan O’Brien’s $44 million dollar pay out might save the lives of thousands of birds.

The pictures on this page were shot around Balboa Boulevard in Encino.

Along the Wash.

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Banks of the LA River: Near the 101 and Vineland

A few weeks back, I explored some of the LA River as it meanders under concrete overpasses and alongside freeways.

There is a paucity of decent parkland in Los Angeles, as anyone who lives here can attest. Looking at an overhead map of the San Fernando Valley, one sees blocks and blocks of development, only sometimes interrupted by a small park.

Chandler Near Tujunga Park N Hollywood

The great freeway builders of the 1950s rammed their roads through the parks because it was easier and cheaper to do than buying up private property. As a result, North Hollywood, with its river and public green spaces, now plays host to an eternal hellish drone of smoke, noise, litter, violent driving and environmental catastrophe.

In Van Nuys, the 405 slices through parks, a wildlife sanctuary, past the Sepulveda Dam and through the Woodley Park area.

There are forces now, benevolent ones, like the Friends of the LA River, who are trying to reverse the damage done by the entombing of the river in the early 1940s, and the paving over by traffic engineers in the 1950s and 60s. They are planting trees, promoting walking and nature, and building bike trails. The most affluent area of the San Fernando Valley, Studio City, has seen the most upgrades along the LA River.

The Wash Near Vineland &101

But mostly the river and water and wash is ignored, standing mute, alongside the vehicles and the onslaught of cars and trucks, whose main goal is getting somewhere faster.