Tag: Eric Garcetti

Van Nuys Business District Struggles Against Decay: 12 23 1979

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43 years ago the situation of the Van Nuys Business District was quite abysmal. The good shops had closed down and the street was full of bail bonds and pawn shops. Merchants complained about street racing, and the negative affects of parking meters which discouraged shoppers from spending more time in stores.

On Wednesday nights the street came alive as thousands converged to watch cruise nights. But the crowds blocked streets and left behind trash. The businesses didn’t like it.

In 1977, “Vitalize Van Nuys” began, a privately financed, community-based redevelopment organization. It sought to revitalize businesses, generate more employment and upgrade the surrounding residential community.

34-year-old Bruce Ackerman operated the Greater Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce after working with the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce. He promoted a resurgence of retail.

“Van Nuys really hit rock bottom in 1977,” recalled Dick Lithgow of Agency Insurance.

There were 23 massage parlors back then.

Hopeful signs in 1979 included a $14 million dollar government complex with new courthouses, post office and police station. There were also new studies forecasting “a tremendous demand for office space in Van Nuys.”

Legitimate businesses such as Nahas Department Store complained that vagrants harassed customers in the parking lot.

Owner Richard Smith said the neighborhood was increasingly elderly and Hispanic. “We were concerned with the growth of the barrio around 1975-76, but that has not caused any problems for us,” he said.

Another positive sign for Van Nuys in 1979 was the 100 businesses that had spent more than $4 million dollars ($4,000 per business) upgrading their properties.

In 2022, it is hard to imagine the challenges Van Nuys faced in 1979.

Fortunately, those far sighted visionaries gave us a truly spectacular urban boulevard we can all be proud of: clean, safe, thriving, walkable, architecturally magnificent, the jewel of the San Fernando Valley.

Thank you especially goes to Councilwoman Nury Martinez and Mayor Eric Garcetti for their leadership!

Public to Vote in Secret City Election, Today.

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The Voyager Motel
The Voyager Motel

The Voyager Motel, view North
The Voyager Motel, view North

I voted in an election today to choose a new mayor, members for the Board of Education, a Community College District person, and a City Attorney.

I don’t know any of the people, save for Eric Garcetti, who my friend likes and taught tennis to when he was a young man.

“He always was polite. He is a Rhodes scholar.”

Poor Wendy Gruel did not get my vote because her last name recalls bad prison food like watery porridge.

Armed with my LA Times print-out and reading glasses, I walked from my house over to the Voyager (Adult) Motel and entered a room where one table was full of elderly attentive volunteers.

I forgot my wallet and asked an older woman if I needed ID. “Not in America!” was her feisty reply. She directed me over to the other side of the room, to a table staffed by young, multi-cultural texters who barely looked up when I walked over to them.

“Thanks for the ballot.”

“Huh? Oh, no problem.”

I took the strange and clunky, elongated ballot, put it into the plastic holder and used the short pen pointer to make holes next to the names I didn’t know.

After voting, I got a small sticker.

And then I remembered another upcoming election….

For the past few weeks, I have had door knocks and emails from two men running for the City Council District #6 seat, unknown Derek Waleko and unpronounceable Dan Stroncak. The seat was formerly held by fat huckster and do-nothing, now Congressman, Tony Cardenas.

City Council District#6 election will be on May 21, 2013.

Not today but on May 21, 2013.

Got that straight?

An election was held today in which less than 20% of voters will participate. Another election will be held on May 21, 2013 in which very few will vote, for City Council District #6, a desperately dirty, tired, poorly run area, populated by some beautiful but neglected homes, overrun by crime and illegalities, both small and domestic, large and international.

In our pocket, couches and condoms are street décor, and the local bird is a helicopter.

Who will come and focus their energy, attention and resources on Van Nuys?

If not me, who then?

A Nice Alley

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Gone are vomit, trash, urine, needles, puddles and foul odors; the alley to the east of Cahuenga Blvd., south of Hollywood Blvd. is now a sparkling, paved and planted oasis of civility, thanks to an $800,000 grant and the initiative and idea of UCLA student Sarah MacPherson’s master thesis on alley transformation.

City Councilman Eric Garcetti worked with the now defunct and defunded LA Community Redevelopment Agency to procure an arrangement that allowed property owners, restaurants, and other businesses to work with the LADOT in repaving and landscaping a back alley which is now lined with cafes, wall art, lanterns and lights. 

There are 26 other alleys in Hollywood, and the Hollywood Business Improvement District hopes this project becomes a template to redo other forgotten spaces to help civilize LA.

Last night’s dusk tour was arranged by Design East of Labrea, and it began and ended at St. Felix’s Happy Hour.There are more photos on Facebook’s Here in Van Nuys page.

Another small step towards a more walkable, sociable, urbane city.