Topic Archive: San Fernando Valley
Dramatic geyser is blowing higher than the rooftops on Van Nuys Boulevard near Sherman Way. Screen cap is from CBS 2. * Noon update: DWP says the main, which broke... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted November 2, 2009 11:23 AM
The Los Angeles Police Department has issued an alert to all Jewish day schools and synagogues in the wake of this morning's attack in North Hollywood. The Jewish Journal has... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 29, 2009 10:16 AM
Police are investigating this morning's shooting at Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue on Sylvan Street in North Hollywood as a hate crime. Two Jewish men were shot inside the synagogue... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 29, 2009 8:36 AM
Veronique de Turenne was up and outside early this morning and caught this view across the West Valley from the top of the Santa Monica Mountains. She's got another view... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 15, 2009 4:30 PM
Not much surprise in the 2nd City Council district: Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (34%) will face Christine Essel (28%) in the December runoff. Only 14,525 people voted, a bit more than... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 23, 2009 7:50 AM
Historian Kevin Starr's latest thick work on California, "Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963," devotes much attention to the San Fernando Valley, which swelled during the time... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 21, 2009 12:41 AM
While city crews try to repair that giant hole where a water trunk line failed on Coldwater Canyon Avenue over the weekend, another water main break has claimed a fire... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 8, 2009 7:17 AM
At the morning shift change at the Hansen Dam command post, more than 1,000 firefighters paused to remember Capt. Tedmund Hall and Arnaldo Quinones, the County Fire veterans who died... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 4, 2009 8:42 AM
Here's the latest page from the U.S. Forest Service command post, with evacuations and other data. The Station Fire stands at 121,762 acres.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 1, 2009 10:18 AM
If it's not a word, it should be. TJ Sullivan's daily view from the Westside captures perhaps the week's most voluminous pyrocumulus cloud yet, dwarfing the InterContinental Hotel in Century... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 31, 2009 5:54 PM
Incident commander Mike Dietrich just told the 5 p.m. media briefing that the weather is still working against firefighters in the Angeles National Forest. "This is a very angry fire... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 31, 2009 5:20 PM
I'll do a fire news roundup after the 5 p.m. briefing at Hansen Dam. Meanwhile, flying in or out of Los Angeles has been more visually dramatic during the fires.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 31, 2009 4:28 PM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's face was not in evidence in the fire coverage this weekend — it has been a county, state and national forest show. But with the fire coming... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 31, 2009 9:04 AM
Wow. The Station Fire is now at 85,000 acres — and there have been no Santa Ana winds pushing this monster along. Some homes were lost last night near Acton,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 31, 2009 8:06 AM
What begins as a behind-the-scenes video of the fire camp and media swarm at Hansen Dam turns into an emotional briefing on the deaths of two Los Angeles County firefighters.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 31, 2009 1:22 AM
Here is today's image from Earth Snapshot. Click it to biggify.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 30, 2009 9:57 PM
Tonight's briefing at the fire command post at Hansen Dam began with deputy chief Mike Bryant of the county fire department announcing that two of his men died about 2:30... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 30, 2009 9:23 PM
* Updated through the afternoon The fire front in the San Gabriels stretches 19 miles east to west, with containment essentially at nil. Previously evacuated area in La Cañada... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 30, 2009 2:53 PM
Channel 9's fire coverage in the 9 o'clock hour included several minutes with reporter Dave Lopez on the battle by firefighters to save the La Cañada Flintridge home of the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 29, 2009 9:53 PM
Los Angeles lawyer web content producer Eric Spiegelman, an LA Observed reader from way back, made a time lapse video — 90 minutes in 24 seconds — of the smoke... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 29, 2009 8:42 PM
It took Van Nuys merchants, the Daily News and the LAPD decades to eradicate the Los Angeles tradition of cruising on Van Nuys Boulevard. They finally had to shut the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 13, 2009 10:58 AM
Amusing omission on the Daily News website, submitted by a mutual reader who observes "the neighborhood has its faults, but it ain't thaaat bad." Police reportedly suspect a link to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 9, 2009 5:07 PM
Ron Kaye's new organ for his activist brand of politics and news, OurLA.org, ran a long piece yesterday claiming to debunk the "meltdown myth" regarding the 1959 nuclear reactor incident... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 30, 2009 9:55 AM
Another lawsuit has been filed against the city of Burbank by officers (or former officers) in the city's police department. This is the second suit alone by former detective Christopher... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 29, 2009 5:15 PM
In honor of Sherman Oaks adding a new precinct of ex-Van Nuysians, here's the latest by Steve Greenberg. For the heck of it, here's my timeline of San Fernando... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 15, 2009 11:35 AM
With local media obsessing a bit this week on the 50th anniversary of the partial meltdown of an experimental nuclear reactor above Chatsworth, here's the first comprehensive news story on... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 14, 2009 4:56 PM
Sherman Oaks now extends north of Burbank Boulevard, at least in one neighborhood, in another blow to Van Nuys. Lots of levity during the City Council debate, so to speak... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 14, 2009 1:00 PM
The Forest Lawn cemetery wedged between Griffith Park, Burbank and Toluca Lake calls itself FL Hollywood Hills for marketing purposes, but make no mistake: it's in the San Fernando Valley.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 6, 2009 2:35 PM
Lori Jablons sends this photo of a brush fire burning this afternoon in the hills behind her Lake View Terrace neighborhood. "You can see the flames within the smoke, and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 5, 2009 3:11 PM
LAUSD chief Ramon Cortines said he was taking "appropriate personnel action" against the principal and athletic director of Birmingham High School for letting Sacha Baron Cohen (as gay character "Bruno")... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 30, 2009 10:52 PM
As part of the promotion for the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie Bruno, GQ magazine runs photos of Cohen-as-Bruno cavorting on the field with the football team at Birmingham High... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 29, 2009 4:30 PM
The Orange Line busway extension from Woodland Hills to Chatsworth will follow the route of old Southern Pacific railroad tracks that crossed the Valley starting in 1888. The trains carried... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 25, 2009 10:57 PM
This weekend is the 40th anniversary of Newport '69, the first — and last — ginormous rock festival to be staged within a leafy Los Angeles suburb. On June 20,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 17, 2009 12:01 PM
News reports of a Crips gang party in Studio City on Wednesday night made me smile, if only because of the location. The stories gave the club's name as Platinum... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 12, 2009 11:49 PM
A few readers have emailed in the last couple of days wondering about the Lucky market that re-appeared at Van Nuys and Sherman Way in the Valley, taking over an... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 5, 2009 8:38 AM
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa dropped in Saturday at the opening of actress Melissa Joan Hart's store Sweet Harts in Sherman Oaks. He's getting a hug from Valley restaurant and real... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 1, 2009 1:55 PM
Natasha Vargas-Cooper, who is watching the murder trial of Jesse James Hollywood up in Santa Barbara for The Awl, grew up with killing victim Nick Markowitz in West Hills. The... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted May 27, 2009 3:55 PM
"It was supposed to be the Valley's first public museum, our own Disney Hall," says a Daily News editorial. Instead, the plan to relocate the Children's Museum to Hansen Dam... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 26, 2009 11:05 PM
The troubled museum-in-waiting near Hansen Dam in Lake View Terrace has taken steps to file for Chapter 7 protection, at least partly due to the impact of a scam, per... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 2, 2009 4:35 PM
Daily News staffer and blogger Steve Rosenberg lives in the latest part of Van Nuys that wants to transfer its real estate karma into Sherman Oaks — and he isn't... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 21, 2009 12:32 PM
The Cal State Northridge Matadors are leading Memphis by 3 in their NCAA tournament game with 8 minutes left. On Channel 2. * No Cinderella story: Memphis 81, Northridge 70.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 19, 2009 11:09 AM
Ron Dickson, who writes about the aviation history of the San Fernando Valley, sends along this photo of the terminal and tower at Burbank before Lockheed took over and stucco-ized... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 18, 2009 12:42 PM
The Burbank Times did a nice job with the 1959 photographs that were recovered from a time capsule dug out of a bridge in Burbank last month. The publication put... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 17, 2009 5:49 PM
A promotional video from 1993 [? see below] for the Los Angeles Times Valley Edition — an almost stand-alone newspaper put out by dozens of reporters, editors and other journalists... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 11, 2009 9:45 PM
Dunder Mifflin's office, parking lot and hedge are located on Saticoy Street in an industrial part of Van Nuys. In case you suspected Scranton looked eerily like the San Fernando... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 21, 2009 8:46 PM
David Kronke, who covered television for the Daily News and wrote the paper's Mayor of Television blog, posted his final item today and said to watch for the launch of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 20, 2009 4:13 PM
It's not what you think — perhaps, though, it's the logical Darwinian outcome of car culture? Observed Sunday on Reseda Boulevard in Northridge. Video link More LA Observed video: Downtown... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 16, 2009 6:01 PM
David Garza of Los Angeles Mission College grabbed this photo of snow dusting the hills behind Sylmar this afternoon.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 9, 2009 10:58 PM
After an adult male opposum was shot in the head in Van Nuys on Saturday, it required the neighborhood kids, an Animal Services officer, Valley Wildlife Care in Woodland Hills... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 5, 2009 9:29 AM
Jeffrey Katzenberg and other Motion Picture & Television Fund officials just revealed plans to close the acute-care hospital and long-term care residence at the home in Woodland Hills. About 100... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 14, 2009 1:40 PM
Looks like the former K-Mart store on Foothill Boulevard will stay empty. Home Depot has given up trying to get approval — over concerted neighborhood opposition — to open a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 7, 2009 6:26 PM
In the winter of 1949, snow blanketed the floor of the San Fernando Valley and other parts of the basin. But swimming lessons must go on — it was the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted November 27, 2008 12:15 PM
The author and creator of "ER" died yesterday in Los Angeles "after a courageous and private battle against cancer," his website announced. His books included "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted November 5, 2008 11:29 AM
Sign on the Sepulveda and National Hamlet on the Westside cites loss of the lease, but skeptical Chowhound posters suspect "loss of customers" is behind the closure. "We'll certainly see... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted November 4, 2008 12:23 PM
Fear for your job? Looking for a safe haven to sit out at the recession? The Church of Scientology is hiring. And offering a free personality test. Spotted on Sherman... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted November 2, 2008 7:58 PM
I enjoy Los Angeles history as much as the next guy, and probably more than the guy beside him. Yet I haven't felt motivated to read the L.A. Times' seven-part... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 31, 2008 1:58 AM
Kagel Canyon looked scorched but almost serene over the weekend. The locals had put up signs thanking the firefighters who knocked down last week's wildfire. Here's a one-minute video of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 22, 2008 12:15 AM
The fire that began on Oat Mountain above Porter Ranch doubled in size overnight to 9,872 acres and was burning southwest across Ventura County, while the Marek fire that began... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 14, 2008 9:45 AM
The two wildfires burning in and around Los Angeles have destroyed at least three dozen mobile homes in Lopez Canyon and 19 structures, many of them homes, in the area... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 10:50 PM
Los Angeles County fire chief P. Michael Freeman is quoted on City News Service saying that firefighters are doing their best to check the Porter Ranch-Browns Canyon fire "from making... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 2:09 PM
The campus is probably five miles from the nearest flames, but the heavy smoke over the Valley and interrupted freeways prompted CSUN to cancel afternoon and evening classes. Also, Chatsworth... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 1:54 PM
Channel 7 just reported that, with the wind blowing more fiercely, evacuations have just been called for Box Canyon, Woolsey Canyon, Bell Canyon, Dayton Canyon and Lake Manor. KABC thought... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 1:22 PM
It's by Mel Melcon of the Los Angeles Times, on LATimes.com. It shows the smoke roiling off the Sesnon fire in Browns Canyon and Porter Ranch.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 1:08 PM
Channel 4 says there is a report that someone died in a car fire on the freeway near DeSoto Avenue, a bit east of where the Sesnon fire has jumped... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 12:54 PM
* Updated post Twin Lakes and Indian Hills, two communities hard up against the brush north of Chatsworth, are evacuating. Flames are moving across Browns Canyon, the access up to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 12:24 PM
* Update: All Los Angeles TV new stations are live on the fires. A fast-moving new fire has erupted in the Santa Susana Mountains and is laying down smoke on... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted October 13, 2008 11:02 AM
Quick update from an item this morning: Principal Donna Tobin posts at the Walter Reed Middle School website that "permission to use the front of our school for the Republican... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 5, 2008 1:54 PM
The backdrop photo chosen to illustrate John McCain's speech last night sure appears to be Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood. No one has said why a school in... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted September 5, 2008 8:49 AM
Back in the 1920s, when Ventura Boulevard through Sherman Oaks was a two-lane highway with dirt shoulders, real estate agents pitched it as the "Wilshire Boulevard of the Valley." It... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted August 11, 2008 4:09 PM
Unfortunately, the Daily News this morning bannered Dana Bartholomew's story saying the hotel and banquet center in Studio City would close. It's still big on the website. Miscommunication — but... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 16, 2008 4:41 PM
The quirky Sportsmen's Lodge hotel on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City will shut down Dec. 31, the Daily News says. [* But the paper was wrong. See below.] The 11-acre... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 16, 2008 9:25 AM
The LAPD says that in a study it ran in the Valley, DNA samples collected at the scene of residential and commercial burglaries helped identify a suspect in 45 percent... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 2, 2008 9:55 AM
St. Bernardine of Siena Parish in Woodland Hills has donated nearly $1.5 million of its savings to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to help fund last year's multimillion-dollar... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 30, 2008 11:27 AM
The Times' website today is pushing a travel feature on the West San Fernando Valley, writing that "in what we hope will be an ongoing series, we present you a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 29, 2008 2:16 PM
Grant High School has been plagued for years by clashes between Latino and Armenian students — dating, some say, to hard feelings over the response to major earthquakes in Mexico... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 24, 2008 9:20 AM
The Home Depot project on Foothill Boulevard that ran into a mountain of community opposition is back on the agenda. The store applied to City Hall for a permit to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 22, 2008 3:54 PM
I'm told by Alex Fay, legislative deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, that Google will be fixing its maps listing Van Nuys as "Van NY." When I saw... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 21, 2008 10:38 PM
A few readers have sent this to me. (Thanks.) Google Maps has the Van Nuys community name just right, but the airport, boulevard and golf course are all reduced to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 20, 2008 11:57 PM
From ex-editor Ron Kaye's new blog: In my mind, it's time for people to make a stand for what they believe in, to act like the free people Americans are... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 17, 2008 11:24 PM
This is a pretty good animal story, told in today's Daily News by columnist Dennis McCarthy. On Tuesday morning, John Caruso spotted a sheep and a German shepherd running together... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 17, 2008 3:05 PM
Rev. Eric Lee says the whole episode in which philanthropist (and Hillary Clinton supporter) Daphna Ziman accused him of anti-Semitic remarks has been wearing and hurtful. Lee, who is African... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted April 17, 2008 12:56 PM
Every so often, one of the local media outlets returns to the theme of "The Valley, it's not so bad" and pretends the concept itself isn't kind of old. Today... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted March 13, 2008 4:15 PM
Not too many musicians follow this particular career arc. Buddy Miles, who died yesterday in Austin of congestive heart failure, began as a session player with the Delfonics and on... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 27, 2008 7:35 PM
OK, more loot than treasure. But when cops followed the map scrawled by burglar Roberto Caveda and dug where the X was marked near White Oak Avenue and the Reagan... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 27, 2008 12:02 PM
With seven residential projects containing 900 units already under construction — and another two dozen projects approved — the most upscale shopping street across the Valley is evolving. But the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 24, 2008 12:18 PM
Actually it's not so new, but the Koreanization of the suburbs in the northwest Valley has really taken hold. I think every church my parents tried to drag me into... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 23, 2008 11:00 AM
Much honored Los Angeles sci-fi writer and alternate historian Harry Turtledove writes about time travel in his Crosstime Traffic series. Could he be predicting the future with the sixth book... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted February 8, 2008 9:23 AM
Valley history buffs were aghast to learn last week that the first hangar built at what's now called Van Nuys Airport was in the process of being torn down. The... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 23, 2007 4:53 PM
A portion of Reseda with large lots wants to rename itself Reseda Ranch to help fend off developers and instill some community pride. If the City Council agrees to let... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted July 22, 2007 11:09 AM
Environmental rehab of the Santa Susana Field Lab site in the West Valley has been inadequate, U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti ruled. He told the Department of Energy to... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted May 3, 2007 7:58 AM
Blogger Andrew Hurvitz at Here in Van Nuys sounds exasperated, or worse, at the way the onetime downtown of the Valley has gone. He writes in a post called Columbus... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted January 17, 2007 11:38 AM
One thing I can add to the Times' appreciation today of It's a Wonderful Life, the film classic starring James Stewart and Donna Reed: all that fake snow was created... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 23, 2006 1:27 PM
With Glendale and Burbank included the Valley's population is now 1.74 million, larger than every U.S. city except New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. The U.S. Census Bureau's first-ever... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted December 7, 2006 11:25 AM
It happened Sunday night on Woodale Avenue in Arleta, says the Daily News' Susan Abram. Filimon Ramos was killed and his 19-year-old son wounded, apparently by a neighbor who had... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Posted June 27, 2006 11:55 AM