San Fernando Mission

The city this week unveiled a new street sign renaming a section of 1st Street inside the city's limits to Frank Modugno Drive, in honor of the late civic leader. The city changed the name of the portion of the street that stretches northwest from Hubbard Avenue to the San Fernando / Sylmar MetroLink Station. The City Council voted last June to rename the section of street, following a similar motion made by the Los Angeles City Council.

A section of 1st Street near the San Fernando / Sylmar Metrolink station has been officially renamed Frank Modugno Drive after the late civic leader. Modugno was well known for his involvement in community organizations around the northeast San Fernando Valley, including the Kiwanis Club, the Elks Club, the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce, Boy Scouts of America, and the Los Angeles Police Department's youth drug-education program known as DARE.

When it's finished, a mural being painted on a 6-foot-high wall in Las Palmas Park will be among the largest in the San Fernando Valley. "After the mural in the wash on Coldwater Canyon [Boulevard], I think it's the . . . biggest," said Mission Hills muralist Lalo Garcia, who with his colleague Otto "Tito" Sturcke and several teenagers from San Fernando has worked on the mural since December. The mural is about 75% complete.

When four fraternity pledges from Cal State Northridge stole the historic marker bell from the San Fernando Mission in a supposed prank, the episode had more than a familiar ring to it for campus officials. While youthful high jinks have long been a part of college life, university officials were hardly amused.

The Cal State Northridge fraternity responsible for the theft of the historic San Fernando Mission bell in January plans to fight university-imposed disciplinary sanctions that members fear could shut down their organization, a spokesman said Wednesday. In the wake of the bell theft by four Pi Kappa Alpha pledges, a panel of student representatives from CSUN fraternities on Feb.

A plain metal locker at the San Fernando Mission archives belies its magnificent contents--a 200-year-old homage to God and proof of the glorious, long-denied heritage of Old California. But the treasure, much like the period of history it represents, remained hidden for centuries, all but forgotten.

Cal State Northridge administrators said Thursday that they are considering what actions to take against fraternity members who stole a historical El Camino Real bell as a prank. William C. Watkins, assistant vice president for student life, said he expects to decide next Tuesday what to do to the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity after four pledges stole a 100-pound bell from the San Fernando Mission in January.

It's a bell that doesn't ring, is made of plain cast iron and commemorates a 700-mile trail built hundreds of years ago. Msgr. Francis Weber was baffled as to why someone would want to steal the El Camino Real bell--and the 12-foot-high staff it is perched on--from the street in front of the San Fernando Mission. But when he got a call offering its return, he asked no questions. The bell was back outside the mission on Tuesday, where it has sat for 86 years. On the night of Jan.

As a native of the East San Fernando Valley who grew up among street gangs and whose son was killed in a drive-by shooting, William (Blinky) Rodriguez is no stranger to gang violence. Indeed, he has devoted the last four years to bringing about its end. But the peacemaker who has known grief mourns again--this time for the 20-year-old boyfriend of his niece, stabbed to death last week in what police describe as a gang-related brawl in Mission Hills.