Sunland Tujunga

Much has happened since last October when Sunland-Tujunga residents participated in the community's first-ever pride march. The Los Angeles City Council approved a new revitalization plan for a strip of Foothill Boulevard, the new branch library is ready and a new honorary mayor and mascot have assumed power, among other highlights. So at this year's "March for a Clean, Safe Community," coming up Saturday, organizers say there is much to cheer about.

Sunland-Tujunga's 49th annual Watermelon Festival kicks off another year with dozens of activities including carnival rides, a petting zoo, free watermelon-eating and seed-spitting contests, clowns, laser tag, waterslides, live music and a vendor village. Catch the melon-themed entertainment daily through Sunday. Sunland Park Recreation Center, 8651 Foothill Blvd., Sunland. 5-11 p.m. Fri., noon-11:30 p.m. Sat., noon-10:30 p.m. Sun. $2. (818) 353-4554. http://www.lionswatermelonfestival.

The three candidates for honorary mayor of Sunland-Tujunga--a chef, a telecommunications executive and a black Labrador/German shepherd--will be introduced by Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs at a community forum Thursday in Tujunga. "I don't know if he (Wachs) knows about the dog yet," said Gail Koretz, a spokeswoman for Wachs.

A side-by-side refrigerator and a Jacuzzi tub dumped in the Big Tujunga Wash in plain view of Tomi Lyn Bowling's home is what first spurred the Sunland resident to action in 2003. For several years afterward, she led successful efforts to clean up the junk. Then came the homeless. Some transients built shelters in the wash, using scraps and plastic sheeting. Others pitched tents. Residents complain that bushes have been turned into bathrooms. They also worry about the use of drugs, the destruction of wildlife and the potential devaluation of their nearby homes.

Sick of insulting nicknames and negative publicity, dozens of residents marched Saturday to promote the virtues of their community and spotlight local efforts to control crime. More than 130 paraded down Foothill Boulevard on Saturday in the first Sunland-Tujunga Pride March. "I've grown up here," said marcher Valerie Statland, 14, a Tujunga native. "I've been able to see the changes for the worse, and it's not right. I have friends who've been mugged. It's getting to be like South-Central.

Sunland-Tujunga is steeped in a history of new beginnings. At the turn of the last century, new arrivals transformed the chaparral-covered land in the northeastern San Fernando Valley into an expanse of ranches and orchards. Artists and asthmatics alike came for the clean air and inspirational beauty. When Steven Spielberg's friendly extraterrestrial made contact, Sunland-Tujunga was his landing point (the house where E.T. was filmed is still there). Today, this suburban community has banded together to fight the "mansionization" and big box stores that threaten the area's rural character.

After a dozen years of trying, Sunland-Tujunga finally got its community recreation center Saturday when a crowd of 300 residents and dignitaries, including a couple of congressmen, turned out to dedicate the Verdugo Hills Family YMCA. It was a "glorious day" for the community, which now can offer its children "a positive place for growing up, in the kind of environment that seems so often lacking today," Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs said. Complete with a letter of congratulations from President Bush, the afternoon ceremony took place in front of the beige, ranch-style building with redwood trim that looks out on the San Gabriel Mountains and the brushy Verdugo hills.

At a minute past 6:30 Thursday night, the scheduled live broadcast of the Foothill News was "dead." Instead of the local happenings around the community, black-and-white static was televised all over Sunland-Tujunga on Channel 8. Technical difficulties at the main broadcast station delayed the start of the news, and the production crew rushed around in a quiet but anxious frenzy as they waited for the problem to clear.

Los Angeles police officers Sunday will begin foot patrols in business areas in Sunland-Tujunga, giving police a higher profile and providing more protection to this community of 55,000, where residents have long felt neglected by the city. "We've always called ourselves the forgotten stepchild," said Kathy Anthony, a local tailor.

Thank you for the terrific article on the Hills of Peace Cemetery ("Sisters Campaign to Fix Cemetery," Times Valley Edition, Nov. 16). Most people don't know how rich this area is in historical sites. I wish to make one small correction. The article seemed to suggest that mostly indigents were buried there. The cemetery opened in 1922 and it wasn't until the 1970s that Los Angeles County used it for indigents. The Hills of Peace holds the remains of many Sunland-Tujunga founding fathers and not a few ancestors of present-day residents.

Sunland-Tujunga is steeped in a history of new beginnings. At the turn of the last century, new arrivals transformed the chaparral-covered land in the northeastern San Fernando Valley into an expanse of ranches and orchards. Artists and asthmatics alike came for the clean air and inspirational beauty. When Steven Spielberg's friendly extraterrestrial made contact, Sunland-Tujunga was his landing point (the house where E.T. was filmed is still there). Today, this suburban community has banded together to fight the "mansionization" and big box stores that threaten the area's rural character.

Hardware giant Home Depot said Wednesday that it has given up on an expensive and hard-fought campaign to open a store in Sunland-Tujunga, dropping its lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and ending a five-year push to move into an empty Kmart building despite noisy opposition. A representative of Home Depot said the decision was prompted by the company's ongoing difficulties at City Hall and the recent downturn in the national economy.

The Los Angeles City Council dealt a final blow Wednesday to Home Depot's high-stakes bid to secure an over-the-counter permit for a new store in Sunland-Tujunga, disregarding a lobbying blitz waged by the company over the last two weeks. The council voted 12 to 1 to require Home Depot's project to go through a more extensive environmental review -- a move that doesn't halt the project but will require months of additional work.

Forget the talk about traffic, zoning and even day laborers. At Los Angeles City Hall, the fight over a new Home Depot may boil down to a single question: How many lobbyists will it take to open one hardware store in the San Fernando Valley? Home Depot's push to expand into Sunland-Tujunga might seem like the most local of controversies, one pitting a retail chain against angry neighbors worried about blight and congested streets.

Sunland-Tujunga, long known as Los Angeles' rural outpost of craggy canyons, secluded houses, horse trails and a onetime motorcycle gang hide-out, is in the midst of an identity crisis: Build a Home Depot or shop at a mom-and-pop hardware store? Hilltop McMansions or open space? Support a revitalized main street or promote more tract home developments?

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a motion Wednesday to stop the so-called mansionization of the Sunland and Tujunga areas of the San Fernando Valley. The council will take another vote next week. The motion prohibits the construction of homes larger than 2,400 square feet and forbids new homes from being larger than 40% of the lot size.

It is difficult for me to understand why newspaper people always look for negative attitudes, seemingly favoring those in opposition while ignoring those who favor a project, a program or a viewpoint. A case in point is the report by Greg Braxton on May 24 concerning the unanimous appeal ruling by the Board of Zoning Appeals endorsing the Sisters of Bethany's retreat house and convent in the hills above Tujunga. The story starts out "Despite protests" the board approved the project.

In the past several months, The Times has devoted a great deal of resources to reporting various efforts to revise the structure of Los Angeles through its charter and by legislation. While this does reflect a widespread unhappiness with government as usual, the fundamental question remains that of representation. The high degree of displeasure with government rests primarily upon the view that elected officials are simply not responsive to the needs and demands of their constituents.

Katerina Karen Canyon began writing poetry as a child, after her father snooped through her diary: "I had a need to write things down," said Canyon, 32. "So I wrote poems, thinking he wouldn't know what I was writing about." This month, Canyon was named poet laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, a community of winding back roads in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.