Reseda Boulevard

Want fries with that art? Just a year ago a community-oriented art gallery opened in the shadow of a Northridge Burger King. Founded by five Valley art organizations, the Valley Institute of Visual Art, or VIVA, was a triumph of vision and commitment over whatever complex forces have kept the Valley from having an art scene as vital as that on the Westside. "We were told we would never pull it off and get our doors open," recalls Connie Larson, president of VIVA.

Four people were injured Monday morning, one critically, in a collision involving a private school bus and three cars in Reseda, authorities said. The crash occurred about 6:50 a.m. at Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way, said Ron Myers of the Los Angeles Fire Department. No children were aboard the bus, said Sgt. Houston Currie of the California Highway Patrol. The driver of one of the cars was critically injured and taken to a local hospital, Myers said. Three adults, including the bus driver, suffered minor injuries, Myers said.

After a bitter exchange between lawmakers, a Los Angeles City Council panel Wednesday postponed until Oct. 14 a decision on a controversial proposal to scrap a long-range plan for extending Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive.

Ten years ago, it seemed the world couldn't get enough of Reseda Boulevard. Maybe you remember the photos and the TV images: the victims, huddled in blankets, crying on the sidewalk; the lines of shellshocked people waiting to buy food and water at the Ralphs at the corner of Devonshire Street.

"I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree," as Ogden Nash once put it, but driving down Reseda Boulevard to work in the morning, I find that billboards are pretty much all there is to look at. And although certainly unlovely, they often have a great deal to say about the current state of popular culture, if we choose to read them carefully enough.

A bitter controversy over a plan to pave a route for commuters through state parkland was resurrected Thursday when advocates questioned a law designed to ban an extension of Reseda Boulevard. More than 100 people packed a Los Angeles Planning Commission meeting in Sherman Oaks, turning the discussion of a technical legal issue into a full-blown debate on the merits of parkland preservation versus traffic relief.

Planning commissioners deadlocked Thursday on whether they should alter a city requirement to match state law banning the extension of Reseda Boulevard. A developer, Harlan Lee & Associates, had asked the city to modify the conditions it set more than a decade ago to reflect changes in state law. The city had required Harlan Lee to extend and pave Reseda Boulevard in return for approval of a 178-house project near a park. But 1991 legislation written by Assemblyman Terry B.

A bill aimed at blocking construction of a four-lane extension of Reseda Boulevard through Topanga State Park, south to Mulholland Drive, has won final legislative passage. The state Assembly sent the bill to Gov. Pete Wilson late Friday on a 59-16 vote. Bill Livingstone, the governor's press secretary, said Saturday that Wilson has not taken a position on the proposal by Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles).

Called "Reseda-to-the-Sea," it was to have been a cross-mountain highway linking the San Fernando Valley and Brentwood. On Tuesday, protesters called it the road that wouldn't die. At a Tarzana news conference attended by 50 environmental and community activists, several speakers criticized Los Angeles city officials for failing to keep their pledge to kill the road plans.

To the delight of environmentalists and state parks officials, Gov. Pete Wilson on Sunday signed into law a bill aimed at blocking construction of a four-lane extension of Reseda Boulevard through Topanga State Park. "I'm delighted," said Daniel Preece, who oversees the Santa Monica Mountains district for the state Department of Parks and Recreation. "We were very hopeful that he would sign it. . . . Certainly we think this bill will protect one of the finest state parks in California."

Re "Ventura Freeway Plan Sparks Outcry in Valley," May 13: Funny how a few people living along the 101 Freeway feel they can force hundreds of thousands of people a day to suffer in gridlock because they were foolish enough to buy property next to the freeway. The state should immediately enact its power of eminent domain and take all the property along the 101 Freeway to begin adding multiple lanes in both directions and over the hill along the 405 Freeway. The state of California should not stop there; it should take the land needed to build the originally intended freeway along Reseda Boulevard going over the hill.

A 61-year-old woman was robbed and raped in her residence Thursday night, police said. About 7 p.m., the woman walked downstairs from her apartment on Reseda Boulevard to get her mail, police said. Apparently, three men followed her back, forced themselves inside and sexually assaulted her, police said. The men, described as 20 to 30 years old and having shaved heads, fled with an unspecified amount of cash. Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at (877) 529-3855.

"I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree," as Ogden Nash once put it, but driving down Reseda Boulevard to work in the morning, I find that billboards are pretty much all there is to look at. And although certainly unlovely, they often have a great deal to say about the current state of popular culture, if we choose to read them carefully enough.

Amid concerns about an increase in traffic accidents, Los Angeles officials proposed Friday to fix 19 city intersections with the worst accident records, eight of which are in the San Fernando Valley. The focus on dangerous intersections stems from concern over a 4% increase in accidents from 1997 to 1999, reversing an earlier downward trend.

Want fries with that art? Just a year ago a community-oriented art gallery opened in the shadow of a Northridge Burger King. Founded by five Valley art organizations, the Valley Institute of Visual Art, or VIVA, was a triumph of vision and commitment over whatever complex forces have kept the Valley from having an art scene as vital as that on the Westside. "We were told we would never pull it off and get our doors open," recalls Connie Larson, president of VIVA.

The woman killed in a car accident Friday evening has been identified as Evelyn Faris, 72, of Tarzana, a spokeswoman for the county coroner's office said Saturday. Faris was the passenger in a car driven by Rose Orfalea, also 72 and from Tarzana. Orfalea's car was westbound on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana and turning left onto Reseda Boulevard when it was struck by an oncoming auto, police said.

Bruises were bandaged and fingers of blame were pointed Friday following a fist-swinging melee between residents of Tarzana and Encino, two of the San Fernando Valley's most well-to-do communities. Carrying their quarrel into a post-fight analysis, representatives of homeowner groups and politicians who witnessed the fracas outside Lanai Road School on Thursday night agreed only that the brawl was violent and, some said, "very ugly." But they disagreed on who was to blame.

Oops! It certainly looked on the map like a good place to build large luxury estates: next to a broad boulevard that connects with one of Los Angeles' most important thoroughfares. So city workers apparently didn't think twice when they slapped the stamp of approval on plans for new homes along Reseda Boulevard near its intersection with busy Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. The problem is that Reseda doesn't intersect with Sunset.

Cal State Northridge, which has embarked on an ambitious plan with Reseda Boulevard entrepreneurs to create one of the city's largest business improvement districts, hosted a first-ever citywide gathering for people planning similar districts to swap ideas.

University officials and a group of property owners want to transform Northridge into a college town. In an effort to give Cal State Northridge's 27,000 students a reason to stay in the area after classes, campus officials and local business owners are working with the city to create a business improvement district on the perimeter of the commuter campus.