San Fernando Valley – Page 17

Van Nuys Boulevard: Between Sherman Way and Saticoy (Part 1)

August 5, 2014August 5, 2014Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged Cuban, Latino, Restaurants, Salvadorean, San Fernando Valley, Saticoy, Valerio, Van Nuys Boulevard5 Comments

Bustling, aesthetically hideous, vibrant, multi-ethnic, colorful, trashy, tacky, inhuman; filled with families, vagrants, small businesses and the newest Americans.

Van Nuys Boulevard, between Sherman Way and Saticoy, that is where the action is.

Reformers and planners might dream of trees and benches near the Valley Municipal Building, in the old downtown, but Van Nuys has moved up north, where the bus riders catch the #162 and #163, stopping to grab lunch at Boston Market, buying a cake at Mey Fung Bakery, picking up smokes at Angie’s Cigars, getting their hair cut at John’s Barber Shop, and snacking on Ceviche Peruano at Ay Papa Que Rico, a Cuban restaurant rated highly on Yelp.

Like a vision from old Tijuana, a row of brightly painted shops near 7433 Van Nuys Blvd, houses El Progresso Supermarket and Guateex “Rapido y Seguro” a place to send packages and shipments to Central America; a barber, a tattoo shop and “Tropical Fish and Pets”. Each business is enclosed in a cube, vividly colored, advertising signs.

Salvadorean food is served at La Carreta (“The Cart”) a one-story, stand alone restaurant with tables and parking at 7301 Van Nuys Boulevard. Mediocre reviews alternate with better ones on Yelp:

“This is a small Salvadorian restaurant in the middle of Van Nuys (yeah, yuk, Van Nuys I know) I work out here and it’s hard to find good places to eat. Here, I love the pupusas. I get them filled con frijoles, con loroco y con loroco y frijoles.”

And smoke pours onto the street from burning mesquite at Ay Papa Que Rico, 7344 Van Nuys Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91405 where Yelp reviewers are ecstatic:

“I was getting my car serviced & I smelled the most delicious mesquite scent coming from this place on the corner. I walked in got a half chicken, & Wow!!!!!! It has to be some of the best tasting grilled chicken I have ever had.”

“The grilled chicken is a definitely must order! It’s Tender, juicy & well seasoned. Cooked to perfection. Also try the Cuban sandwich, it hits all the right notes.”

As night falls, the long day of men and women who work in dirt and heat, under cars, in kitchens, cutting hair, stacking boxes, looking after children, go back to their apartments, (like “English West”), collapsing on the couch, taking a long shower, resting in a bedroom where the air-conditioning blows cold.

Part 1 of a 2 part article

Friday Night Lights at MacLeod Ale

July 26, 2014April 4, 2015Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged "Haute Burger", Ale, beer, Brewery, Drinking, MacLeod's, San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys and the Valley2 Comments

I stopped by MacLeod Ale in Van Nuys last night.

The mood was low-key. Scottish music played. People sat on stools in the cool air-conditioning. The servers were jokey.

Brewer Andy Black, serious and studious as usual, was in back testing his brew for sugar content.

At the new wood tables up front, people sat, drank beer and ate pizzas and truck food from Haute Burger.

This good looking couple came all the way from Haskell Street in Lake Balboa.

And outside the brewery, as night closed in, the dented cars and steel fences stood motionless as another long, hot day on Calvert Street went dark.

Nixon in Panorama City: November 29, 1956

May 14, 2014May 14, 2014Posted in HistoryTagged "Congressman Edgar W. Hiestand", "John Birch Society", 1956, California, history, Panorama City, Politics, Republican, Richard M. Nixon, San Fernando Valley, Speech1 Comment

Not long after VP Richard M. Nixon and his boss, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, won the 1956 election, Nixon and wife Pat toured Southern California.

Introduced by Congressman Edgar W. Hiestand (R), a staunch anti-Communist and a member of the John Birch Society, Nixon spoke to an enthusiastic shopping center crowd under a banner sign which read: “Panorama City Welcomes Dick”.

(Photos courtesy of the USC Digital Archives)

Ralph’s Sherman Oaks.

May 7, 2014Posted in ArchitectureTagged "Photo Essay", Hazeltine, Links, Ralphs, San Fernando Valley, Sherman Oaks7 Comments

At twilight, last night, the new Ralph’s in Sherman Oaks, stood glistening under cloudy skies.

Dressed up and standing alone on the corner of Hazeltine and Ventura: metal panels and squash-colored inserts, coffee-tinted siding alongside creamy towers.

And a profusion of plants everywhere, succulents in the thousands, and grasses, and trees and roses and brown bark, bark laid down in trenches all around the building, even along the loading dock.

Hygienic, modern, urbane, green.

Friendly to pedestrians and the disabled.

A bright RED plastic sign with the oval circle encircling RALPH’s FRESH FARE.

A new supermarket had come to Sherman Oaks, vaulting over old timers and neighborhood groups and homeowners fearing “urban” might bring the shvartze, the illegal and the hipster to this corner of the valley.

But at 7 pm last night there was no sign of humanity on the sidewalks around Ralph’s.

It had passed the Los Angeles test for a great building. It looked good and kept the streets clean and empty.

Van Nuys Boulevard, Circa 1940

April 30, 2014Posted in History, Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged 1940, Diagonal parking, San Fernando Valley, shopping, Stores, Van Nuys and the Valley2 Comments

From the Department of Water and Power photo archives, comes this photograph of the Norvord Building at 6420 Van Nuys Boulevard, just north of Victory, circa 1940.

Van Nuys Boulevard, before it was widened in 1954, had diagonal parking, as Brand Boulevard in Glendale does today.

In looking at the above photograph, one can see that the 1920s building, had, by 1940, undergone some modernist facade renovations with curved glass at Mode O’Day and streamline signage at Arnold W. Leveen Hardware. The simple and lovely “Van Nuys Stationary Store” had a discreet sign and an awning to shade the interior from the sun.

Van Nuys Boulevard was a walkable, civilized, clean and prosperous street in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. Locals shopped here and patronized small businesses who in turn watched over the community. That was Van Nuys 74 years ago.

And what is it today?

Van Nuys, 1926

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged "USC Digital Archives", 1926, Dick Whittington Studio, Historical, Photo, San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys and the ValleyLeave a comment

86 years ago, the Dick Whittington Studio took these photos around Van Nuys.

Locations are unknown, but what one sees is prosperity and industry tethered to art.

The tiled bungalow with its vast wings, rafters, and a vented and vaulted front door entrance is an amalgamation of styles: Spanish, Adobe, Mission; wealth without ostentation, a type of house that might exist in Pasadena. Architects back then, trained in classical styles, could superimpose styles governed by correct proportion.

In 1926, people lived and worked here next to a neat row of trees, a farmhouse, fruit trees and a clean concrete roadway with one lone automobile.

Workman construct a cottage, surrounded by agriculture, as a suited man, probably the owner or architect, watches.

And making it all possible, the Bureau of Power and Light, housed in a neat little brick building, business conducted behind venetian blinds, rooms cooled by operable vents above sheets of glass.

Los Angeles has changed a lot since then.

(USC Digital Archives)

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