Van Nuys Page
Copyright © 1998-2000 David G. Bartholomew
Revised August 25, 2000
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I started this page in February 1995 because, at the time,
there wasn't anything on the web about the community of
Van Nuys, California.So I figured I'd start one and see where it went. If somebody else has done one, let me know and I'll be happy to provide a link to it.
Since I began this page, most of the reasons for doing it no longer exist. But, I'll continue keeping this page up, even if I don't upkeep it too often.
This page was done by me personally, with some of the facts courtesy of the local Chamber of Commerce.
![[ Yahoo! ]](http://www.yahoo.com/images/recip/1yahoo.gif){kind=small}
Yahoo's Van Nuys Local Page contains more detailed information on
area businesses, restaurants, hotels, and that kind of thing.
I do not have a lot of that here because this is a non-commercial page.
Any mention of businesses here is merely a courtesy plug.
Please read my disclaimer for more.
(And yeah, I've submitted my page to Yahoo and I don't know why it
doesn't show up there. Oh well.)
| Wanted: Midi file for this page... |
|
I have been looking around the web for a Midi file
of Bing Crosby's hit song from the 1940's,
"San Fernando Valley." I have been unable to find one,
despite checking all the major search engines and scouring
many Midi repositories. I think it would be a great
piece of music to have in the background here,
as well as be available for you to download too.
(As you know I always provide a link to the file itself
whenever I include any music or sounds - this way you
don't have to hack your way in to get it.) If you know of where I can get such a Midi file, please write to me!  If you end up doing the sequencing yourself, I'll make sure you get the credit for it too. |
Van Nuys is surrounded by North Hollywood and Sun Valley to the east, Sherman Oaks and Encino to the south, Reseda to the west, and Panorama City and North Hills (formerly Sepulveda) to the north. Northridge, where the earthquake of January 17th 1994 was centered, is about 6 miles northwest. Downtown Los Angeles is about 20 miles to the southeast.
The major east-west streets are Victory Boulevard and Sherman Way, and the major north-south streets are Van Nuys, Sepulveda, and Balboa Boulevards, and Woodman Avenue.
Freeway access is primarily from I-405 (San Diego Freeway) which runs north and south through the area, and US-101 (Ventura Freeway) which runs east and west through Sherman Oaks.
The San Fernando Valley is an area approximately 30 miles wide and
20 miles long (north to south). Seen in this view from space, you
can see major streets, freeways, airports, reservoirs, and parkland.
(The brighter areas in the northeast are due to the way the street
patterns lined up with the radar for this picture.)
The naturally flowing river channels include the Los Angeles River, the Tujunga Wash, and various tributary creeks (Bell, Calabasas, Aliso, Bull, Pacoima, etc). Two dams were built in the late 1930's to early 1940's (Hansen Dam and Sepulveda Dam) for flood control, and many of the river channels got cement walls.
On the south edge of the valley lie the Santa Monica Mountains. On the north side, you have Oat Mountain (used as an underground storage site for natural gas) and the westward extension of the San Gabriel Range. To the west lie the Simi Hills, where Rocketdyne (now part of Boeing) used to test rocket engines. ("When the thunder shakes the mountain every evening just at nine, and your house begins to tremble: it's not God, it's Rocketdyne!") On the east edge of the valley are the Verdugo Mountains.
Most of the topography of the Los Angeles area is directly
related to long-term
earthquake fault action. Most of the
important faults run diagonally in a NW to SE direction,
and other faults run in a straighter east-west direction.
The patterns of most of the mountain ranges follow
the same pattern mainly because of fault lines along
their bases.
The San Andreas Fault Zone is only some 30 miles away
beyond the San Gabriel Range.
Here's a really cool map
of the elevation and faultlines in the state.
However there are many smaller faults that angle around in all sorts of directions. These faults can be difficult to detect because of sedimentary buildup in the valley floor (not to mention urbanization!) which conceals the fault lines. Some can be seen because of the landforms they've affected, such as Plummer Hill.
On the northeast, I-210 (Foothill Freeway) goes behind the Verdugo Mountains to connect Sylmar to Pasadena and points east. To the east, I-5 (Golden State) and Hwy-134 (Ventura Freeway) follow the Los Angeles River as it leaves the valley next to Griffith Park. On the northwest, Hwy-118 (Ronald Reagan Freeway, or Simi Freeway) goes over Santa Susana Pass into Simi Valley. On the west, US-101 (Ventura Freeway) goes over the Calabasas Grade to the Conejo Valley (cone-AY-ho) and to Ventura County. US-101 also goes to the southeast over Cahuenga Pass (kuh-WEEN-guh) as the Hollywood Freeway through Hollywood and on to downtown Los Angeles. And finally, there are a number of canyon roads over and through the mountains, many of which are used quite heavily by commuters.
If you think you're confused by now, just wait! There's more! The Hollywood Freeway has two different route numbers in places, and so does the Ventura Freeway! US-101 goes by two different freeway names in places. On top of that, the state considers US-101 a north-south route, even though it mostly runs east-west in the L.A. area! So, while the sign says "Southbound 101" you're really going east.
Confused yet? Just wait, there's more! If you venture outside the San Fernando Valley, you'll find that I-405 (San Diego Freeway) doesn't go to San Diego. I-5 has two different names in places (Golden State Freeway and Santa Ana Freeway), and I-10 also has two different names in places (Santa Monica Freeway and San Bernardino Freeway). The "East L.A. Interchange", also known as the "Five & Dime", is a messup of the Golden State, Santa Ana, Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Pomona Freeways. And regular places can drive you nuts too: Hollywood Park is not in Hollywood, and Santa Anita Park is actually in Arcadia. Warner Center is nowhere near Warner Bros. Studios.
And if you're dyslexic, look out! There's the 1, 2, 5, 10, 14, 15, 105, 405, 605, 90, 19, 91, 71, 710, 110, 101, 210, 215, and all kinds of other highway numbers!
Remember Johnny Carson's famous comedy sketch with "Art Fern's Tea-Time Movie",
and how he'd do a commercial illustrating how to find some crazy place?
That scenario with the confusing freeway map and directions wasn't
too far from the truth.
(Carson was actually poking fun at Ben Hunter, who used to
host afternoon movies on Los Angeles TV interspersed with these types
of commercials.)
Maybe you should consider a carpool. One person to drive, one to navigate, and one to ride shotgun.
If you are interested in the highways of the area,
past and present, check out this
highway
history site. They have a bunch of
old maps
too. Amazing how many different highway numbers there used to be!
However, I searched the 1990 U.S. Census database for zip codes of 91401, 91402, 91403, 91405 and 91406 (the residential zip codes for the Van Nuys area), and it gave an estimated total of around 200,000. I have since heard from the local Chamber of Commerce who tells me that's about right.
There are some parts of Van Nuys you never want to go to at night, nor in the daytime either. There are gangs, burglaries, drugs, hookers, and other seedy things. Home prices are through the roof even in less than desirable neighborhoods, thus keeping many people from ever owning a home themselves.
There are plenty of good places in the area to go shopping. Some of the larger malls are in Warner Center, Northridge, and Sherman Oaks, but there are lots of other stores everywhere.
Major banks have lots of branches and ATM machines everywhere. Many ATMs are inside of grocery stores now. Some of them with lots of branches and ATM's (not necessarily popular banks but certainly populous banks) are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual, and California Federal. (I do all my banking through a credit union half a mile from my house, so I don't need no stinkin' branches!)
My favorite grocery store chain is Ralphs. Other stores commonly found include Vons, and Albertsons. (Hughes was absorbed by Ralphs, and Lucky was absorbed by Albertsons.)
Convenience stores abound in the area. Almost any large intersection has one. 7-Eleven is found about one mile apart on many streets. AM-PM is another good one, also found all over.
Gas stations are easy to find. The major brands (Shell, Chevron,
Mobil, Texaco, 76) are around of course.
The best price on gas is
the cash price at most Arco stations, and there are some others
such as Thrifty and USA which also have low prices.
Whoops! Not lately! See my
Gas War page for ongoing news about this!
(In the old days, a little store had a gas pump outside. Now, the gas stations have a little store inside.)
If you keep to the speed limit of 35 along many streets, you'll hit all of the green lights. Except for where you come to the freeway or cross Van Nuys or Sepulveda. (And the city keeps talking about synchronizing the lights to move more traffic in certain directions at certain times of certain days. Why fix what's not broken?)
There are two major daily newspapers serving the area. These are the Los Angeles Times, and the Daily News. (I only buy the latter.) There are Spanish language newspapers which also have a high circulation. And of course you have the ever-present USA Today. The Sunday editions of the Daily News and the Times usually have coupons which many stores (like Ralphs) will double. So, spend the dollar or so for the Sunday paper, keep the coupons and the TV listings, toss whatever you don't want to read (in the case of the Times I'd say toss the whole thing; you can tell I don't like them, huh?), and then save much more than the price of the paper when you go to the grocery store.
Go here to read about the food places in the area.
VNY covers 725 acres and has two runways. The long runway is over 8000' long and can handle large jet aircraft, although the jets are generally hauling cargo. Companies including Federal Express, Hughes, Raytheon Aircraft, and Clay Lacy Aviation have operations, and over 800 private planes and 50 private and government helicopters are based here. The airport contributes nearly $1 billion to the Southern California economy and creates over 8700 jobs.
Many movies and TV shows have had scenes filmed at Van Nuys Airport, though you wouldn't know it unless you lived in the area and recognized the scenery. Perhaps the most famous is the ending scene from Casablanca outside the hangar. This hangar (or what's left of it) can be seen from Waterman Drive, which is the access road going to the airport's public viewing area. Waterman is at Fire Station 90, on Woodley Avenue, on the east side of the airport. The viewing area is open 8:00am to 8:00pm daily unless the airport police decide otherwise.
The northwest portion of the airport used to be the home of the Air National Guard, 146th Tactical Airlift Wing. They used to fly lots of C-130s in and out of there. The 146th relocated to Ventura County a few years ago after the city decided to give them a huge rent increase at Van Nuys.
The old ANG facility is being used constantly by film crews. Many of the scenes they're doing don't have anything to do with the airport at all, they just need a lot of room for some reason or another. Drive past on Balboa Blvd, from Stagg St northward, and you'll usually see their props and things set up.
The Van Nuys Aviation Expo, held in July, is a popular event every year. You can see various military and commercial aircraft on the ground, and climb inside some of them. There are also aerial displays which are quite spectacular. Past air shows have featured the Harrier jet, stealth aircraft, parachute drops, and much more.
The Flyaway Bus Terminal was the first of its kind in the system when it opened in 1975. It provides nonstop bus service for passengers going to or from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), which is about 25 miles south. There is also low-cost parking (compared to rates at LAX). The Flyaway operates from its own revenues at no cost to taxpayers.
Van Nuys Airport is part of the Los Angeles World Airports which also operates Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Ontario International Airport (ONT), and the Palmdale Regional Airport (PMD).
The nearest large passenger airport to Van Nuys is the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport in Burbank, about 7 miles east.
Here's a short story about the event that turned me into a railfan. The day the steam train came through Van Nuys.
The 1964 Tony Randall comedy The Brass Bottle had some vintage scenes of Van Nuys as it was in the early 1960's. The scene where the cars are moving backward is on Sherman Circle, at Van Nuys Blvd and Sherman Way. If you watch carefully, you can see the old "Pup Hut" cone-shaped drive-in which was in the parking lot where Boston Market is now. An oil rig (long gone) is also visible.
In Every Which Way But Loose (the 1978 Clint Eastwood movie that nobody liked but the public), you get to see a lot of the valley. The house they used was on Peoria St near Telfair in Sun Valley. The truck depot that Eastwood pulls into at the very beginning of the movie is on Saticoy St and Woodman Ave. Another one is the scene in which Eastwood is chasing two motorcycles along Victory Blvd, from about Fulton Avenue to at least Woodley. The old Park Lane Shopping Center (Victory and Woodley) is quite visible.
Twilight Zone - The Movie, the 1983 production in which Vic Morrow (who was killed during filming) plays a bigot at a bar. We get to see the outside of the bar as Vic gets hauled away in a Nazi death train (unseen by the locals). The bar is "The Tender Trap", located on Victory Blvd just east of Sepulveda.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High had numerous scenes around the valley, but the high school was Van Nuys High with a facelift. The scene with all the traffic (just before Sean Penn crashes the car) was supposed to be like cruise night on Van Nuys Blvd (and came close to the real thing, except there weren't enough cars). The mall interior was the Sherman Oaks Galleria (Sepulveda Blvd and Ventura).
Who can forget that low grade movie Van Nuys Blvd? I can, for starters.
Rock & Roll High School was filmed at Van Nuys High School in about 2 weeks with a budget of maybe $200. Well, maybe a little more than that.
There was a TV show called Teachers Only in 1982-83 on NBC, starring Lynn Redgrave and Norman Fell. Yep, they used scenes filmed at good old Van Nuys High School again. Most of the show was about the faculty, hiding in the teachers' lounges.
Two Days in the Valley might also be a good contender. I still haven't seen it so I don't know.
The ones closest to Van Nuys are those held in Reseda, Northridge, Chatsworth, and Glendale.
The big one in the area is the one at The Fairplex in Pomona. If they are around on the same weekend as any of the others, just forget about the others and make the drive out to that one, because all of the vendors will be doing the same and the smaller shows always end up as duds.
Admission prices range from free (usually the dud shows trying to compete with the Fairplex one) to $3.00 and $5.00 for the others, and $8.00 for the one at Fairplex. Parking rates may vary.
If you go to Fairplex, it'll cost you around $6.00 to park and $8.00 to get in. Figuring in your gas and the time to get out there (take I-10 to the Fairplex Drive exit), decide whether you'll be saving at least that much to make it worth it. There are a lot more vendors at that one than at the others and a lot better selection of products.
Here are the companies who do these shows. I have thoughtfully provided a direct link to their schedule pages (when possible) so you don't have to waste time navigating there yourself!
[Computer Fair] [American Mega Shows] [Computer Supershows]
Check this link for information on the Los Angeles TV stations.
Van Nuys page from Yahoo. I really like this feature of theirs because
their software does a decent job of choosing what's likely to be interesting
about the area. You can select other areas from them if you want. Choose your
own home town
and see what it comes up with.
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This page is written and maintained by David Bartholomew.
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