Valley Village

A measure to restrict construction in the Valley Village area of North Hollywood has won the support of Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro, who gained the neighborhood in a recent council reapportionment. "There's no question this area is getting overbuilt," Ferraro said at a neighborhood meeting Wednesday night. "I've always supported the need for such plans."

Toni Williamson and her husband, Larry, traversed a significant chunk of the European continent by car in November. The couple traveled about 1,500 miles, visiting Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria and Croatia. During an unplanned excursion on the Istrian Peninsula, they happened upon the hilltop town of Groznjan. "We were on our way back to Venice and took a wrong turn up into the hills and looked back to see this beautiful sight," she said. The Valley Village resident used a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS. To submit your photos, visit our reader photo gallery . When you upload your photos, tell us where they were taken and when.

Last week's powerful earthquake caused relatively minor damage in Valley Village compared to many neighboring communities. While many homes sustained cracks or collapsed chimneys, only three major structures have been red-tagged by city building inspectors as unsafe, said Tom Paterson, a member of the Valley Village Homeowner's Assn. who surveyed the damage. Those include the First Presbyterian Church at Colfax Avenue and Addison Street, and an apartment complex at the same corner.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics all figure in “The Gambler's Daughter,” Paul North's new play about a mathematically gifted career gambler's troubled home life. Unfortunately, numbers don't tell the whole story when it comes to fully realized characters, and the piece battles long odds with limited success in a problematic debut staging at the Eclectic Company Theatre. In a small town two hours outside his Las Vegas stamping ground, professional gambler Lloyd (Edmund Wyson) faces a losing hand trying to mend fences with his estranged daughter, Mary (Laura Michl)

The first sign of the difficulty facing North Hollywood residents because the community has been split up among as many as five City Council districts surfaced during Wednesday's council meeting. The council delayed final approval of an ordinance severely restricting building in the Valley Village area of North Hollywood because Councilman John Ferraro, who gained part of the area under recent redistricting, said he was unfamiliar with the issue and wanted to study it further.

Temple Beth Hillel and Jewish Family Service tonight will offer a special Hanukkah meeting for Jews in recovery and their loved ones at the Valley Village synagogue. The meeting is intended to help fill a need for religious direction that is not provided by Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon and other 12-step programs, according to Jane Ulman, the temple's director of community service.

A city zoning official has approved a plan to permit the Temple Shaarey Zedek in Valley Village to almost double its size, a ruling that neighbors say they plan to appeal. Under the approved conditional use permit, the Orthodox Jewish temple at 12800 Chandler Blvd. is authorized to make a 10,000-square-foot addition to its existing structure. The facility will increase the sanctuary's capacity from 300 to 499 people.

The residents and owners of the 188-unit Valley Village Senior Apartments building will throw a grand opening party Thursday with a visit from Mayor Richard Riordan. The Partnership for Affordable Housing and Kaufman & Broad Multi-Housing Group Inc. built the building, which houses low- and moderate-income people older than 62.

Cellular telephone companies can put up antennas in industrial areas without special permission, and when they have tried to put them up in commercial zones, they generally encounter little resistance. Not so when the proposed site is near a home or a school. That's what AirTouch Cellular learned at a zoning hearing in Sherman Oaks on Monday.

A man who police said fled to Mexico after brutally stabbing a woman in a Valley Village apartment pleaded not guilty Friday to murder charges. Douglas Oliver Kelly, 35, is charged in the September slaying of Sara Weir, a 19-year-old Warner Bros. production assistant who was stabbed in the chest 34 times with a pair of scissors. The victim, who was raised in Thousand Oaks, was reported missing Sept. 7.

Re "A citizens sidewalk brigade," Editorial, Sept. 11 The Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services wants to spend $10 million and three years analyzing the state of the city's sidewalks. As every owner of property in L.A. is tied into the Department of Water and Power, a simple solution would be to include a request in every utility bill to have the customer provide a status report of his or her sidewalk with the payment. An appropriate photo could accompany the response. Alternatively, the Neighborhood Councils could provide this information.

The fact that “No Love,” now in its world premiere at the Eclectic Company Theatre, went up 25 minutes late with absolutely no explanation as to why, was undeniably irritating. And a lengthy opening monologue delivered in almost total darkness by an actor who couldn't find her light (granted, in John Dickey's lighting design there was precious little of it to be found), proved almost insurmountably annoying. Yet those glitches faded into insignificance given the accumulated problems of Andrew Osborne's play - a sort of latter-day “La Ronde” in which various loosely connected characters hook up, act out and get kinky, frequently sans clothing.

Relatives of Stacey L. Schreiber, a Valley Village woman who died trying to save others after a fiery traffic accident this week, remembered her Friday as a warm, loving person who always did her best to help others. "She was just very giving of everything she had to the world," Karina Kausch, 33, said of Schreiber, her older sister. "She wanted it to be a better place and she did that by example. And she did that obviously in this case. " Schreiber, 39, was identified by authorities Friday as one of two women electrocuted when they came into contact with water electrified in the aftermath of the accident Wednesday.

Re "Will Carmageddon sequel be worse?," July 20 What the first "Carmageddon" proved to me (as much as the 1984 Summer Olympics before it) is that most car trips in and around L.A. are not only nonessential but downright pointless. When confronted with the World War II-era question, "Is this trip necessary?," I would have to believe that most Los Angeles drivers would say no. One way to combat the L.A. freeway traffic would be to close a few highways down regularly to make people prioritize their travel and their lives.

Failing to give city inspectors the brush-off, young artists Wednesday painted over a 75-foot mural they had created after officials issued a $360 citation to the Valley Village woman who had commissioned the artwork to brighten an alley next to her home. Barbara Black, a retired studio costume illustrator, said she reluctantly ordered the mural's obliteration after officials threatened to fine her an additional $1,925 if it wasn't removed. The initial citation was issued last month, shortly after the mural was completed.

Longtime artist Barbara Black didn't reach for her paintbrush when she decided a mural would brighten her Valley Village home. Instead, she contacted the art department at nearby North Hollywood High School and invited students to decorate the 50-foot alley wall next to her Otsego Street residence. Black asked the young artists to bring their ideas, and, because she is on a fixed income, to bring their own paint as well. They were happy to oblige. "It's hard to find a place to work where you're not doing it illegally," said Anthony Zapada Green, 19, who hopes to become a professional graphic artist.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday extended for six months a 1 1/2-year-old ordinance restricting the building of large apartment and condominium complexes in Valley Village, an area of predominantly single-family homes in North Hollywood. The extension, passed 12 to 0, was sent to Mayor Tom Bradley for his expected approval. It is designed to give a citizens' advisory panel time to make recommendations to the council on permanent development restrictions for the three-square-mile area.

Judd Bernard is angry that the city plans to cut down two old walnut trees on his Valley Village property. The Los Angeles Department of Public Works says the trees are a safety hazard and should be cut down. "We received a complaint, we responded to the complaint, we felt it was justified," said Tom Essington, who runs the department's street tree division. Both trees, one of them 45 feet tall with limbs that hang over the street, are starting to rot and could topple, he said.

Actor Corbin Bernsen and his wife, actress and interior designer Amanda Pays, have purchased a 1936 Tudor in Valley Village for $900,000. The home, which was on the market for the first time in more than 60 years, is in need of a complete renovation. Corbin and Pays, who try to bring back old homes' original grandeur, plan to do the same with this house. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home has 2,415 square feet of living space and sits on a quarter-acre corner lot. Although Bernsen, 56, is often remembered for his years on "L.A.

At a busy North Hollywood intersection Sunday, the father of Cheree Osmanhodzic stood under a huge electronic billboard bearing the likeness of the man suspected of brutally stabbing his 34-year-old daughter and setting fire to her home to cover up the crime. When Mike Cameron looked at the billboard at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards, he winced, noting with disgust that the suspect, Omar Armando Loera, and his daughter share the same birthdate. But he hopes the sign, looming above a bus stop and Metro station, will help lead to the capture of Loera and provide some piece of mind.