“Van Nuys Blvd.” – Here in Van Nuys

Sunday Morning Victory

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged "Van Nuys Blvd.", Abandonment, Architecture, Desolation, Empty, Friar St., Poverty, San Fernando Valley, Storefronts, Vacancy, Van Nuys and the Valley, victory2 Comments

On a Sunday morning along Victory, east of Kester, the wide street is mostly empty.

It is also empty on Van Nuys Boulevard.

And the only person on Friar Street pushes a shopping cart with her belongings.

Under the dull fog, Van Nuys might be sleeping late.

Sleeping off Cervezas.

Many work on Sundays, but some do not.

Here are sidewalks without trees or humans.

Cars speed past the ghosts of late The Modern Era.

Where medical doctors practiced the most advanced medicine in 1960.

Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson were the Presidents.

And confident young builders hired talent young architects and erected thin paneled office buildings along thriving and newly widened Victory Boulevard.

Men worked at jobs back then. They wore suits.

Women smoked and wore high heels and lipstick and gloves and called themselves ladies.

And kids got in trouble, riding skateboards on the sidewalk or chewing gum in class.

It was a troubled time when blacks were called negroes.

And men were sent off to fight war in Vietnam.

But Van Nuys was still fine, still humming along: safe, secure and industrious.

We live in a rich nation. But all around us, people sleep on benches, and push their belongings in shopping carts.

People sleep on the sidewalk in front of the Chase Bank which has assets of $2.6 trillion and is the largest bank in the United States.

They are sleeping under the arches of the Marvin Braude Center, seat of the government of the City of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley.

And what you see today can break your heart.

Cindy vs. Nuri

July 20, 2013Posted in History, PoliticsTagged "Van Nuys Blvd.", 1926, Cindy Montanez, Dick Wittington Studio, history, Nuri Martinez, Photography, San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys and the Valley4 Comments

On Tuesday, July 23rd, two women, Cindy Montanez and Nuri Martinez, will face off in a special election to decide the next leader of LA’s 6th District which includes Van Nuys, Arleta and Sun Valley.

After a dozen non-productive and self-destructive years of Councilman Tony Cardenas, the district is still one of the least appealing areas of the San Fernando Valley. Downtown Van Nuys is dying, its post office closed, its shops vacant. The Van Nuys Neighborhood Council is a long-running joke, producing theatrics and anger instead of cleaning up the streets.

Why Van Nuys should continue to suffer is one of the strange mysteries of our city.

It is centrally located, adjacent to North Hollywood and Sherman Oaks, an easy commute to Woodland Hills, Studio City and Hollywood. It is served by buses and three freeways, so it certainly does not lack transportation. On many streets there are stunningly beautiful homes often used for filming movies and commercials.

The downfall of Van Nuys, which was established in 1911, began after WII when regional shopping centers replaced mom and pop stores. The widening of Van Nuys Boulevard and Victory, the elimination of diagonal parking, the ripping down of old houses to make way for large government buildings, the influx of immigrants who were poorer and less educated, the slumlords who bought up apartments and let them decay, the emptying out of legitimate business to make way for pot shops, massage parlors and bail bonds, all of these contributed to the El Crappo aura. And basically El Crappo is all one sees driving along Van Nuys Boulevard.

Whomever wins on Tuesday, Ms. Montanez or Ms. Martinez, both ladies (I like that word) will have to dig in her heels and bring shovel-ready action to Van Nuys, and concentrate with all her might in rebuilding a civilized and thriving district that is no longer the laughing stock of Los Angeles.

Van Nuys Blvd., March 1952 (view north)

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012Posted in History, Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged "July 1952", "Van Nuys Blvd.", CA, Frolics Restaurant, Pacific Electric Car No. 5110", Ralph Cantos, Van Nuys and the ValleyLeave a comment

Ralph Cantos Collection

Pacific Electric car no. 5110 rolls along the “Central Business District” of Van Nuys in July 1952.

Frolics Restaurant (seen on right) was at 6216 Van Nuys Blvd.

While it is not a fancy street by any means, it is an arguably bustling and more interesting boulevard than present day. There is diagonal parking along the street, the road has not yet been widened (1954), there is a bright red streetcar going past and the buildings lining the road have windows and doors that “look out” onto the sidewalk.

All of this has been obliterated by the government monstrosities along the east side of the street whose blank walls and banality forever keep Van Nuys in a hellish 1975 architectural limbo.