Not Exactly a Day at the Beach

We expect to see seagulls at Lake Balboa, but this raucous flock was gathered around a rather pathetic puddle in a parking lot at Victory and Owensmouth. The real attraction seemed to be an uncovered dumpster filled with garbage from a couple of nearby restaurants.

Why Voting in Los Angeles is Such a Pain

This post has been revised. Read to the bottom, and you will see why.

Here's what I wrote on April 25: It's no surprise when sleazy operations like massage parlors and credit repair scams use these hideous illegal signs to promote themselves. I've written before about the problem of these ugly billboards proliferating on our streets. But somehow I would have expected a candidate for city attorney to know better. I would have been wrong. This portable billboard recently appeared in my neighborhood, taking up yet another parking spot and making the drive down Topanga Canyon Boulevard just that much uglier.

There is simply no excuse for any candidate in Los Angeles to use illegal signs of any kind, or to contribute to this much-hated form of visual pollution.

Update as of May 4: I photographed this billboard and wrote about it on April 25. I also sent a note about it to the Trutanich campaign via their website. This got more action than I expected. Today I received a comment (see "Rumpole" in the comments below) indicating that this billboard was not placed by the Trutanich campaign, but was instead a "dirty trick" on the part of someone supporting his opponent, Jack Weiss. That's many times worse than if the billboard had been placed there by the Trutanich campaign! I was fooled, and probably many others were, too. Residents of this area are furious over these horrible billboards, so it's certainly a cheap (and dishonest) way to turn them against a candidate. According to a blog post at "David Berger on Los Angeles", someone sent Parking Enforcement to photograph and ticket this billboard, but nothing was done about the others, equally illegal and even uglier, parked on the same block. This is why I hate politics so much.

By the way, as of this morning, May 4, the billboard is still there.

Grasshopper

It's not unusual to find grasshoppers drowned in the pool, but this one saved itself by perching on a hose. The gray bird grasshopper (Schistocerca nitens) is native to the American southwest. We see a lot of them here this time of year. They appear in shades of gray or brown, and can be as much as three inches long. (This one was definitely that big.) They eat plants, but unlike some other species (including locusts) they do not form huge, destructive swarms. They fly rather awkwardly, sometimes crashing into people when they should be escaping.

Incineration

In the 1940s and 50s, it was typical for houses built in South California to have these back yard incinerators for burning household trash. Use of the incinerators was considered by many to be a major source of air pollution, although others believed that industry and automobiles were really to blame. By the end of the 1950s, use of the incinerators had been banned, and most were eventually hauled away, presumably to landfills. But a few remain, often forgotten behind a tool shed or in an overgrown corner of the yard. This one, in remarkably good condition, has been kept by the homeowner because her pet tortoise likes to sleep in it.

Eichler Homes

In the early 1960's, well-known real estate developer Joseph Eichler built a tract of around 100 houses in an area sometimes called Balboa Highlands, in Granada Hills. The principal architects were A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons. Many owners have remodeled these midcentury homes, while others have preserved and restored the original style. This one on Nanette Street was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 848 in 2006.

Beware the Traffic Cam Trap

On a recent weekend, we took a drive out to "Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park". This park, at the south end of Reseda Blvd., has some great views of the valley, and offers paths and trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I would have expected on a Saturday with such pleasant weather, so we easily found a parking spot in the free zone. As it happened, I had forgotten to wear appropriate footwear, so we stuck to the easy paths and didn't stay long.

Imagine my husband's surprise a few days later when he received a traffic ticket in the mail. The notice claimed that we had failed to comply with a stop sign at the park. Normally we respect traffic regulations, and we couldn't even remember seeing a stop sign there, so this seemed very strange. But, sure enough, the videotape (conveniently available online) showed us rolling right through.

The stop sign in question is located several yards from the entrance to the park, at a point where there is no cross traffic, no pedestrian crossing, no gate, and no information booth or ranger station. I suspect that many people, like us, never even notice it, because they are focusing on the park entrance ahead of them (which would be a much more logical place to stop). This sign seems to have no real function other than to generate a little income (at $100 a pop) for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

This is a cautionary tale. Always keep an eye open for odd traffic signs in the parks, and always assume that Big Brother is watching.

Serving Up the Mail

This mailbox on Baird Avenue in Northridge appears to be an arm salvaged from an old Bob's Big Boy restaurant. At one time there were many of these old-style coffee shops, known for their delicious burgers, throughout South California and in many other states. Today, they are few and far between. The only one left in the valley is on Riverside Drive in Burbank. Built in 1949, it is the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in the country.

Urban Blight

In recent years, this ugly form of visual blight has become increasingly common throughout the valley. These horrible signs are a form of mobile graffiti, defacing and devaluing our neighborhoods, interfering with legitimate parking, creating traffic hazards, damming the flow of water in gutters, and blocking drivers' sightlines. Although these signs are illegal, it seems impossible to get rid of them.

In theory, the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services takes an interest in the removal of illegal signs. If you have these monstrosities in your neighborhood, you can report them by calling the bureau at 800-996-2489. Typically, you will be given a case number that you can use for follow up in a couple of weeks if the signs are still there. I recommend jotting down the license numbers on the trailers along with their location and the date you reported them.

Unfortunately, it seems that it is not illegal to park an unhitched trailer on the street unless there are signs prohibiting it. (That is a separate issue from the illegal billboards on the trailers.) Very few streets in the valley have these anti-trailer signs. (And, seriously, do we need yet more signs?) Nevertheless, it might be worthwhile to report these as abandoned or stored vehicles (vehicles left on the street without being moved for more than 72 hours) at www.lacity-parking.org/laopm/1_800.htm.

Valley News and Commentary Online

Valleynews.com is a website loosely related to the Valley News section of the Los Angeles Daily News. It includes feature stories, event information and blogs. According to the site's description, some material is staff-written, but most comes from volunteers in the community. The site appears to be kept up to date (when I visited, I saw stories that had been posted that day). It's not a source for hard news, but could be a useful resource for local activities and nostalgia. Be aware that some of the contributors are posting stories in order to promote their own businesses.

Dixie Canyon Park

This is a very small park at the end of Dixie Canyon Place in Studio City. The street leading to the staircase entrance is not much more than an alley which provides access to the residents of the very expensive townhouses in this neighborhood. The street suffers from occasional potholes and buckled pavement, probably because the water never stops running down the center drainage channel. The water comes from the year-round stream that flows down the canyon.

There is not much available parking close to the entrance, but it would be easy enough to park farther away and walk in. The hike, once you reach the park, is short and not difficult. The trail is about one-eighth of a mile, and loops at the top. Thanks, no doubt, to the stream, it is surprisingly green and fresh, with plenty of shade and lots of birds and critters in the bushes.

Squirrels

This little guy is a member of the species sciurus niger, commonly known as the fox squirrel. These active rodents are seen all over the valley in back yards and parks, running along telephone wires, scampering across roofs, getting run over in the streets, and picking fruit from the trees just as it is about to ripen. Maddeningly, they usually eat just a few bites and discard the rest.

The fox squirrel is not native to California. Around 1904, military veterans from the Mississippi Valley area, who were staying at the Sawtelle Veterans Home on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, brought the animals here from their homes. By the 1940s the fox squirrel had come to be considered an agricultural pest. During the past century, it has expanded its range, and is now found throughout the Santa Monica Mountains, San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley. The animals are seen as far south as the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and to the east throughout Orange County. After so many generations, they probably consider themselves natives, but many naturalists are concerned that they may be displacing our true native species, the western gray squirrel (sciurus griseus).

Encino Stump

When the Encino Oak Tree was declared a historical cultural monument in 1963, it was believed to be approximately 1000 years old. Its canopy was 150 wide, and the trunk had a circumference of 24 feet. The tree survived natural disasters of all kinds. But the tree became sick, probably weakened by a combination of old age and human encroachment. In February, 1998, a severe storm struck the final blow, uprooting the tree (and taking out two parked cars with it). A section of the trunk was placed where the tree had once stood. A year later, another oak tree was planted nearby. Today, the site, a traffic island on Louise Avenue, just south of Ventura Boulevard, appears to be totally neglected. Weeds obscure the path and benches almost completely. The only sign of human interest is a flag attached to the old signboard, and a path beaten into the brush by jaywalkers.

Coral Aloe

Coral striata, known as coral aloe, comes from South Africa. This drought-tolerant plant does very well in South California, and is popular in low-water landscaping. The grayish-green leaves develop a pink tinge on the edges in cold weather, and the plant blooms in winter or early spring. A mature plant can grow to as much as two feet wide and three feet tall.

San Fernando Valley: The Movie, The Song

San Fernando Valley was a 1944 movie filmed here and starring Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, who had a home in the valley. The film included a song of the same name, written by Gordon Jenkins. Bing Crosby recorded the song, and it became a surprise top hit, possibly because of its appeal to returning GIs who were ready to start fresh lives, or possibly just because of Crosby's popularity. People from all over the country were flocking to South California. "I'm gonna settle down and never more roam. And make the San Fernando Valley my home." Nancy Sinatra resurrected the song in 2002 on her California Girl album.