Tag Archives: Beautiful Valley Village

WHAT’S BEING LOST

On Laurel Canyon Boulevard just south of Burbank Blvd., we’ve lost another piece of America’s Post-War Eden.

As frequent Viewers know, the small-scale, country-bakery feel of the retail strips here is characteristic of our community. These were pedestrian spaces intended as small shop groups for individual artisans (think, a fine Italian tailor smoking on his stool waiting for business to stroll in…) However naive that seems, these shops are the direct descendants of the Burlington Arcade, the Bellevue Avenue Shops in Newport, and Hollywood’s “Crossroads of the World”; pedestrian-oriented, human-scaled urban shopping centers designed like old world villages.

And they are the direct progenitors of the 1950′s “shopping centers” with their famous ample parking. This little 1940′s gem had a tiny car-port running through a central garden-drive-court, to a parking lot at the back. Trouble was, it wouldn’t fit a Cadillac Escalade. Sigh.

This loss is a tragedy; just as the world is demanding more affordable, pedestrian-oriented, high-design urban spaces, unique, seminal Valley Village is being torn down for more This Shit.

See – the pretty girl strolling by, and the lush grown-in density of the trees, are reminders of the humanity – the human scale – the humanism – of the old architecture. It’s worth preserving. If only this could have held on for another couple of years; it would have been loved and valued by another generation, I’m sure.

More whimsy in Valley Village yard decoration, here with plush-toys of jungle animals draped all over the prickly-pear.

I suppose it is tempting to decorate with stuffed animals when you know it won’t rain for months. Still: the dust, the dust….Most interesting to me is the juxtaposition of the Lion, the cow skull, and the wine jug – as if Leo has enjoyed a sumptuous, ghostly repast.

Whimsical and minimalist treatment of the “Harvest” theme in a Valley Village yard. The flamingoes and Canada geese, complete with fuzzy little gosling, are plastic, as are the crows. The pumpkins are real. The flowers are beautifully chosen for fall color.

Laurel Canyon Boulevard, looking north across the Valley. The road is as un-lovely, perhaps, as any street in LA. But the picture demonstrates how, as in few other places in Los Angeles, Valley Village is blessed with inspiring mountain views in almost every direction. With the mountains so majestic, you barely notice the Shakey’s Pizza sign, which is the second-most prominent object in this view.

It’s hardly Palm Springs, I admit. But for a moderate-rent, lower-middle-class, largely immigrant and bohemian neighborhood, Valley Village has got it good. We get soaring mountains, near-by hiking, shady river-walks, a wide-open sky, and all the gorgeous weather we want, just by walking out the front door. All of these things are threatened by over-development; so much of the Valley has been obliterated by thoughtless cookie-cutter condo-and-mall densification.

Luckily this has been slow in our neighborhood. We can still hope that new political and cultural ideas about walkable cities, and wild land preservation, and old ideas like giving citizens access to beauty, fresh air, good food and green nature, might infiltrate any future developer’s plans, and thus preserve an expansive, life-affirming element in otherwise drab street-scapes like this one.