The LA Weekly's cover story is on photographer Larry Sultan's upcoming book of still images from porn shoots inside tract houses and back yards around the San Fernando Valley, while in City Beat Erik Himmelsbach revisits the shopping malls of his Valley youth.

I damn near grew up inside the Northridge Fashion Center. I first glimpsed this Taj Mahal of Tampa Avenue soon after it opened in 1971. It was like the United Nations of shopping: From the Tinder Box to Spencer Gifts to the creepy religious smorgasbord Hodels, I had never seen such a disparate array of stores under one roof. Inside the darkened cash-driven cathedral, time was irrelevant. It was all about the sanctity of spending.

The mall put Northridge on the map, and its clout was such that a spend-and-play fortress (Tower Records, Malibu Grand Prix, Wild West Store) emerged across the street on Nordhoff, and a mini-restaurant row sprouted down Tampa (which at one time included the mind-blowing Jeremiah’s Steakhouse. Yum.)

Also in the Weekly: An effort to remove city planning director Con Howe.